“Youdoknow about the Norvalians, yes?”
“Remind me. My head’s still kind of scrambled.”
He stared at her a long moment, head cocked slightly to one side. “We are keepers of the sacred Dotharian texts. The Norvalian Sect. Ringing any bells?”
Ella’s eyes widened, with both real as well as feigned surprise blended together. “You’re a priest?”
“Of the Norvalian Sect, yes. And you are in our monastery.”
“A priest.”
“Yes.”
“Acelibatepriest?”
“As are we all. Do you remember now?”
She gave as much of a nod as her body would allow.
Naturally. The sexiest, kindest man I’ve met in ages, and he’s a priest. Okay, an alien and a priest. But still. Just my luck.
“Oh, of course. Norvalians, right. I remember. My stupid head. How silly of me.” she said, covering her utter cluelessness with a little grin. “Forgive me, Father.”
Draikis chuckled. “No one calls me that. At least not in these walls. We’re all priests of the order, after all.”
“Yeah, I can see how that would be a little weird.”
He studied her a long moment, a loving look in his eyes. One she now recognized asthatkind of love.
Brotherly affection. My luck just keeps getting better and better,she silently grumbled to herself.
“What? It’s rude to stare,” she quipped.
“True. I was just pondering you, Ella. Such a strong, resilient woman. I must admit, I do not know your race. Where exactly is this Earth you have spoken of? Dotharian realms are myriad and spread far and wide, but as a key part of the Conglomerate, we are generally apprised of new additions to the realms.”
“Oh, yeah. Earth.”
“A name I’d not heard until you mentioned it. Where exactly is your world?”
Ella swallowed hard. She may have still been pumped full of mystery chemicals and on the mend, but her mind was clear. Earth was very muchnota part of the Dotharian Conglomerate and their weird rune rules. And from what she could tell, no matter how kind Draikis seemed, the leaders were anything but. Death was the punishment for lacking runes, and no one back home had them.
She would have to beverycareful what she said, though she had a gut feeling Draikis possessed an intuitive ability to read people. She couldn’t say why, but she was almost sure of it.
It’s not much of a stretch. I never studied astronomy.
“You know, my world has only barely reached out to the stars, and in my life, I never really needed to know where we were. Galactically, I mean. I’ve never left it. Most of my people haven’t.”
“Really? That’s odd.”
“You think?”
“It is. But no worry. I suppose I can acquire the location with a few inquiries. Records are sometimes delayed at greater distances. Is your world a recent addition to the Conglomerate?”
“Oh, yeah. Only just happened, so?—”
“That explains a lot. And if your race is only just starting to reach out beyond your world, it is no wonder so much of this seems so new to you.”
“Yeah, it’s a bit much.”
