Chapter 75 The Return, Eve
THE RETURN, EVE
I’m in my usual position, kneeling, while Gai finishes his morning tea. My knees know every imperfection of this stone floor, and my body, as if programmed by evolution, holds this human pet posture without my having to think about it anymore. It’s both a blessing and a curse.
"The Ascendant Alliance’s quarterly earnings report was satisfactory,” Gai says to his guest, another Reima Two business associate whose name I don't need to know.
The holographic display above the breakfast table flashes suddenly. Financial reports vanish, replaced by a grey-skinned news anchor, visibly excited.
brEAKING: House of Serath-Ascendant Alliance Marriage ANNULLED. Madame Zira and Sovereign Directors Rafe and Lorian officially split as of dawn this morning. Sources cite non-consummation as grounds—
Gai sets down his teacup with deliberate calm.
"Finally. Do you see that, Eve?” Then he turns to his guest and says, “You can’t imagine how tiresome it's been, listening to her wail every night since that wedding?
The walls in this estate are thick, but not that thick.
" He turns to me again. “I hope you understand now?”
I can hardly believe what I’m hearing. And I’m frozen trying to process this information. Annulled.
Is it really true?
"You’d think she would have forgotten about them. What’s it been—half a year? I didn’t think humans had the ability for long-term memories,” the guest says with mild interest.
Gai looks back at me but answers his guest, “Yes, some humans have the same memory and IQ as Imperials. Eve is one of them.”
His guest laughs. “You’ve been alone with your pets too long, Gai. You’re anthropomorphizing them.”
“Maybe…”
Just then, the doors to the breakfast room burst open with a crash. And I hear Lorian's voice, real and present and here. “Father!”
I can’t believe it’s him.
Have I finally gone insane from heartache and punishments of this place?
I’m worried that the fantasies that I have at night have seeped into my waking hours.
But I watch as Gai talks to the apparition, his face transforming with relief. "Oh, thank the goddesses. I assume you're here for her? Please say you're here for her."
“Commander Gai, I will excuse myself,” his unnamed guest says and leaves.
"We're here for Eve," Rafe confirms, coming in after his brother, passing the guest in the doorway.
Is this really happening?
“Eve,” Rafe says.
Lorian picks me up in his strong arms. It feels and smells like him. But it can’t be. How can they be here now when their marriage was just annulled at dawn? But still, I look up and run my hands over their grey faces.
“You’re real,” I say, surprised.
“Yes, we’ve come here to take you back to the Spire.”
Then it all sinks in and suddenly rage at their marrying another woman consumes me. And I slap them both, as hard as I can. So hard my hand throbs from the pain. “Put me down.”
Lorian sets me on my feet, but I immediately kneel again next to Autumn as a protest.
"The marriage was—" Lorian begins.
"A sham, yes." Gai gestures at the still-playing broadcast. "Non-consummation? Really? Well, I suppose that explains why you're both here looking half-dead with excitement."
"Eve," Rafe kneels in front of me. "Look at me. Please."
"She won't without permission," Autumn says softly, but there's something in her voice—hope? "Commander—"
"Yes, yes." Gai waves dismissively. "Eve, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Isn’t this what you wanted? They’ve done all of this for you. They’ve changed galactic laws. The marriage to Zira was a setup from the beginning. Maybe you aren’t as clever as we all thought."
I look at Gai. “You knew this was a setup, and you didn’t tell me?”
“I told you it was a marriage of convenience and for economic purposes only.”
“But you let me believe…”
“No Eve. You let yourself believe the worst because you refused to listen to me. But I know why you couldn’t listen because you love them so deeply your heart wouldn’t allow you to see the truth.
You only saw another woman in your place.
But listen to what they have to say now.
My sons have sacrificed a lot for you. The least you can give them is the benefit of the doubt. ”
"Rafe?" My voice cracks, as if the frozen bit of ice that was protecting my heart is now melting and reality is sinking in. "Lorian?"
“Our father is telling the truth,” Lorian confirms, dropping beside his brother. “And we even told our father to say nothing, but the old man refused. He said he’d told you it was a marriage of convenience.”
“He didn’t. Not in words I understood. He should have tried harder. I didn’t eat for days. I tried to escape. I was punished. I was depressed. I almost gave up on life.”
“But you didn’t,” Gai retorts. “And you’re better for it.
All those punishments gave you a chance to work on yourself and purge your childhood trauma.
I would say you’re stronger now than when you arrived here.
And if you want to stay at the Obsidian Palace as my pet, you can.
Or as a free woman, once your sentence is served. ”
His words make my stomach cramp and I look at him in disbelief as he waits for my answer. He is the most contradictory man. “You just said you wanted me gone!”
“I don’t allow myself to grow attached to anyone,” Gai said flatly. “Attachments only complicate exits.”
“Father always says that when he doesn’t want someone to go,” Rafe says.
“Don’t take it personally. As for our marriage.
Zira agreed to marry us for her own business interests.
Neither love nor sex had anything to do with it.
However, publicly we did have to keep up a small amount of appearances, and I’m sorry for that. ”
My mind starts turning. Even though, I hated that they married Zira of House Serath, her name was burned into my mind, and every time she was in the news, I listened intently.
She is a very powerful woman. Someone I could never compete with.
“But why would she do that? What could the Ascendant Alliance ever offer her?”
“Not us. You, Eve. One of the humans you saved at the Grand Championships was important to her,” Rafe says. “She wanted you to know that. Now, about our marriage—”
"Marry?" I can't breathe. “How can we marry? If I’m seen as truly sentient now, then don’t I have to go to the mining moon?”
“No,” Rafe says. “That sentence collapsed the moment the vote passed. Forced labor cannot follow reclassification.”
“Now you’ve been reassigned under custodial jurisdiction—court attached, not condemned. Monitored service, not a mining moon,” Lorian adds.
“And my monitored service is to marry you both?”
Lorian caresses my face. “Oh, my sweet clever heretic, yes.”
I can’t help myself, and I allow myself to lean my face into his large, strong hand and I close my eyes as tears begin to fall. “From the moment Lira mentioned that people said I could be your wife, if I hadn’t been human, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind.”
Rafe puts his hand on my other cheek and wipes away my tears with his thumb.
I take a shaky breath.“And for a while we had the perfect relationship, the three of us, or at least I thought so, until…”. I can’t continue speaking as I break down sobbing.
“Oh, Eve, you have every right to hate us,” Lorian says. “But we are here begging for your forgiveness and asking you to come back to the Spire and be our wife.”
“I can’t believe this is happening. I feel like this is another trick by the Scorn’s Cage. Maybe I’m still in it, hallucinating.” I begin to get worked up, and I push their hands away, but instead of moving back, they each grab one of my hands. To ground me to the physical truth.
“Eve, this is real,” Rafe says. “We hurt you, and we are sorry. We wanted to marry you from the first time we met you.”
“But it took Rafe these years to change the laws,” Lorian says. “We can punish him together if you’d like?”
That makes me smile. “You are real,” I say, squeezing their hands. “In all my fantasies, you never fight like you do in real life.”
Rafe kisses me and then Lorian.
And I allow them.
“So you will marry us?” Lorian asks between kisses.
“Return to the Spire as our wife,” Rafe says.
“But my punishment, my sentence—"
"Still stands," Rafe says, pulling back from kissing me again.
"But you can serve it out as our wife—because marriage places you temporarily under our joint custodial authority, rather than the IGC’s.
. You can work again, have your suite back, if you want, be a person again, even if you're not legally free yet.”
“How is that serving my sentence?” I ask, afraid there’s some terrible dark side. It sounds too good to be true. And one thing I have learned about this side of the galaxy is that there is always a darker side to everything.
Lorian takes both of my hands in his and looks at me sympathetically.
“You can never return to Earth. You cannot speak your human language until your sentence is up, which if you accept this offer will be extended to ten years, and you cannot leave the Celestial Spire for the next ten years. Not even to go to Falcon Station. The hotel will be your prison.”
“Ten years?”
“This is a new custodial term issued under sentient penal review. Transitional cases carry discretionary extensions. The alternative is that you stay here with our father for five more years,” Rafe says.
“And then you could apply for repatriation to Earth through the Alliance Force, but you would most likely be denied because of your criminal record.”
“But I can have my job back? Wear clothing? Do I have to marry you?”
“No, but it would make everything easier,” Rafe says.
Then, surprisingly, Autumn chimes in, “This is a matriarchy, Eve. Do it.”