Epilogue One
EPILOGUE ONE
A NEW MOON
Vivian
“You… look so much like your father. You always have.”
Crossing my legs under me, I pass Laura a long fiber of grass from the pile next to me. Taking several fibers for myself, I follow her lead in weaving them together in a basket. Around us the trees rustle, the scent of flowers is in the air, and the grass is cushy and soft where we sit.
“I know. All of his children do.”
She continues to look at me, her eyes trailing over my face for the hundredth time, like she’s not certain if I’m really here or a figment of her imagination. I’ve been doing the same to her.
Syasku and I arrived yesterday evening and were led straight to the heart of the green naga’s territory, and—to my surprise—a house built in the trees where not only Laura awaited, but others as well, including Kyle and this squad leader he’s been searching for.
He’d arrived that morning and had almost been killed by the red naga, Vruksha, who was also amongst the group, but he was saved at the last moment by Zhallaix, another naga, who luckily recognized him. Afterward, he told them about Syasku, Audrin, and me, explaining that we weren’t far behind.
“Sometimes… I wasn’t certain if you were mine, or if that was a lie Minton used to try to control me.”
Struggling to start a braid, I shift my eyes back to her.
She winces and returns to threading her fiber. “I know he was telling the truth, but with him… you could never really know.”
My eyes drop to my hands and the dirt on them. “I understand. I’ve had the same thought about you.” It still hurts.
She nods slowly and returns to working on her basket.
Trying to connect after an awkward evening, all while being welcomed and simultaneously unwelcomed, hasn’t been easy. For either of us. Whereas Audrin and I were accepted by the group that’s formed here, Syasku’s been a different story. The only one who welcomed him has been the green naga, Azsote.
My mother’s… mate.
Seeing as Azsote looks like the youngest naga here, and Laura the oldest female, their union took me aback. I wasn’t truly expecting it. At all. Although I never knew my mother growing up, I had seen her in passing and heard gossip from others. She had never committed to a man, had never stayed contracted to anyone long enough to have a family. She’s been mostly on her own since… her time with my father.
I’ve always had a hunch as to why, and until now, I never thought I’d know the truth. It turns out she didn’t want a child with him, and he stole her eggs, forcing it to happen anyway. She was never a “donor.”
Discovering this unsettles me. I wish it surprised me more. But the pain of the past doesn’t hurt any less for it, and I find a part of me is still wishing she had tried . The only difference it makes is that I’m beginning to understand her better.
The only reason I exist is because of my father, and I want him dead now more than ever.
I smile at Laura when I see her frown. “Then I remembered you were short, and so was I. I didn’t get my shortness from him, and… neither did I get my Yulen DNA.”
“My parents never reassured you?” she asks.
“They did, but I don’t remember much about my time with them. They were rarely around.”
She looks off into the distance. “Were they at least kind to you?”
“They were.”
“I’m… glad.”
I return to my braid. There’s no one around since everyone seemed to think we needed time to talk. No one asked me if that’s what I wanted right now, but it was inevitable. Even Audrin is absent, taken by the other two women to be fawned over and played with. There is another baby here, Odessa, and she is quite intrigued by him.
So here I am, sitting with… my mother… learning to braid a basket, at the edge of a river while perched on a small rise where our males can guard us from a distance.
Glancing over my shoulder and toward the dense trees, I search for Syasku, unable to find him. Same goes for Azsote, and I wonder if they’re having their own conversation out of our sight. I’m jealous no one else has traumatic issues to resolve with their family.
It’s like what the one woman, Celeste, said the night before… I should feel lucky.
It’s Laura who should feel lucky, not me.
Either way, I’m not used to opening up—with anyone—and trying to do so now, even if I had some time to prepare, hasn’t been easy. I’ve experienced a gauntlet of emotions when it comes to my mother, and they’re hard to address when seeing her here, like this… our circumstances now entwined.
“Would you have done anything differently?” I ask when things go quiet.
She’s silent for a moment. “I would have tried harder to reach out to you and help you understand the predicaments we faced. So you were aware I was trying to keep you safe, rather than believing I wanted nothing to do with you.”
I sigh. “Maybe it was for the best that you never did. It would’ve only made life harder for me.”
“I know,” she whispers.
Silence falls between us again, and for a time, we focus on our baskets.
In the distance, I hear the faint hum of a ship, and we glance at the mountains. A ship descends from the sky to fly above them, heading north. Watching until it disappears from view, I wonder if it’s headed for Omari’s group or if it belongs to Father’s military.
“Syasku seems nice.”
I turn back to my mother. “He is.”
“Tell me about him.”
“Well… as you’re aware, he was captured, and that’s how we met. He… saved my life.” I lick my lips, thinking back on it all. “He didn’t have to forgive me for my role in what happened to him yet he did anyway, and I can’t help feeling there’s a lot to apologize for. I don’t deserve him, and he’s always assuring me I do. I love him. Sometimes I think…” I trail off and shake my head. “Never mind.”
“Think what? Tell me.”
The sound of another ship descending fills my ears, and I watch as the vessel heads in the same direction.
I swallow and turn away. “Sometimes I think he was meant to be captured, just so he could save me. Like it was meant to happen. It doesn’t make sense. I know that’s not the case.”
“It makes sense to me.”
Lifting my eyes, we look at each other, and my chest tightens. “He almost captured you,” I say.
She smiles. “Almost. He scared the shit out of me. They both did. If it weren’t for him and Azsote, I most definitely would have been captured by your father’s soldiers and taken back to The Dreadnaut. So when you say it seems like he was meant to save you, I completely understand. Coincidences like that… well,” she tilts her head at me, “they just don’t happen.”
I stare at her, pressure forming behind my eyes. “Fate? Luck?”
She shrugs. “Both?”
It’s my turn to smile. “I like the thought of that.”
“Me too.”
We fall into silence again and return our attention to the weaving at hand. Fumbling with the braids, I end up restarting mine several times before getting the hang of it. As time passes, the tension between us eases. Mother was never my enemy.
She was just as much a victim as I was.
And no one except her will ever understand what it was like living under Father’s shadow.
“Vivian,” she says abruptly, and giving her my attention, I lower my hands. “I’d like for you, Syasku, and Audrin to stay?—”
A third ship appears, roaring above us as it heads north as well, and Mother’s words falter as we watch it until it vanishes. “There’s a lot of ships today,” I murmur.
A frown forms on her face. “More than usual.”
“What do you think that means?”
“Well… If they’re all headed north, they’re likely headed for the new colony you mentioned. They didn’t look like battleships.”
Watching the sky, I swear I hear another coming. “Maybe Father lifted the lockdown.”
Laura and I glance at each other and setting aside my weaving, I stand. She joins me after a moment to look around with me. As she does, two more ships appear.
And a third that descends in the sky behind us.
Hearing the shaking of branches, leaves, and bushes, I pivot just in time to see Syasku and Azsote heading straight for us.
“Get out of sight!” Azsote shouts, reaching Laura moments before Syasku reaches me. Snatching us up, they rush to the closest tree.
“What’s going on?” Laura asks, lowering from Azsote’s embrace.
He shakes his head, his brow deeply furrowed.
“We do not know, only that a lot more are about to arrive,” Syasku warns, keeping his hold on me firm.
“What about Audrin?” I ask, taking in his concerned expression. “Maybe we should?—”
Just then, the ships appear. Not just one or two, but hundreds, nearly countless in their numbers like stars falling from the sky. The noise they make eclipses even the beating of our hearts as they head straight for the forest, their lack of formation adding to the abrupt chaos.
They’re not battleships, at least not most of them…
I glance at the others; they’re all staring upward, confusion and worry twisting their faces. As more approach, appearing right above our heads, we scurry deeper into the trees.
Vruksha rushes us from the right, seemingly coming out of nowhere. “Thissss way, now!” he shouts, waving his strange spear in the direction of the forest.
My gaze clashes with Syasku’s. “Audrin,” I whisper.
He grips me harder against him, and we chase after Vruksha, as Azsote carries my mother into the trees. All around us and in every direction, the sound of spaceships chases us.
Seeing the others waiting for us at the entrance to an underground bunker, I remove myself from Syasku’s hold and snatch Audrin from Celeste’s waiting arms.
“Everyone get inside,” she yells, waving us in.
Syasku grabs my other arm, and turning toward him, I follow his gaze between the trees to where the pale moon contrasts the blue sky.
A bright white light flashes, followed by another and another.
Slowly, a red cloud forms around the blasts.
Everyone watches as the cloud grows, creating a red and orange smear that bleeds over the moon.
“ The Dreadnaut,” I whisper, a shiver coursing up my spine.
Syasku’s grip on me tightens as he drags me down into the hole in the ground.
It’s gone.