Inthemiddleofthe night, Xexis found he could not sleep. He shouldn’t be too surprised. According to Aphrodite, he’d been unconscious for the entire ride back to the station. She kept him alive by painstakingly feeding him protein infused water. After waking and getting the strength to leave the healing bay, they spent hours eating hard food in the mess hall. They stopped by the lab to stuff Buddy in a new exo-skelenton, to which he promptly showed off to everyone. They made it back to their rooms late into the evening. Finally, Aphrodite dropped like a body into the bed.
For the first time, he was the mate sat up into the night. He lingered with Buddy, digging.
Kill the Council, destroy life in the stars. The words repeated over and over in his mind. Replaying the feeling of desperation, of despair, of destruction. They were made to destroy life and the Council.
Who could possibly gain from the destruction of life in the stars?
Who could possibly want that?
Buddy and he went through records, the accords, reports, anything he could get his hands on. Between Buddy scanning every record they had of public health crisis, lyssavirus incidentsin the past, and anyone with a public dislike for the Council. Specifically anyone who vowed to destroy the Vroz.
Sinx. It kept going back to the Sinx. There were no open documents about them, everything was redacted. Even for the Kannatch.That’s not good.If the files available to him were redacted, it meant only one other way he could discuss it. Xnasis.
He glanced down at his Mate. Aphrodite was fully unconscious. Draped over the mattress, breathing heavy, clearly deep in rest she’d earned. Xexis placed the data pad next to her. “Let her know I’ll return, I'm speaking with Xnasis.”
Buddy filled the screen with text as a note to Aphrodite, as the Kannatch stepped into a pair of pants. Pulling a robe top over his chest, he rolled on the crystal rings along his biceps on the way to the Council chambers. It took no time as he stepped down from their chamber hall into the main body of the station. The halls were winding until he entered the massive, but hollow court. To the eastern side was the Council foyer.
Xnasis was in the chambers already, pacing in front of a wall of hologram documents. A round room full of thick rugs and soft fabrics over plush seats. The crystal walls, usually displaying a cozy room full of tapestry, was now a wall-to-wall display of work. Xnasis, chewing on a few knuckles, stared at them like they had answers. Both brothers knew there were no answers.
“You are as restless as me,” Xexis chuckled softly, closing the heavy metal door behind him. Sensors beneath the carpet gave up trying to register his footsteps as he padded across the floor. Xnasis dropped into a massive, leather seat behind him. It curled around him and allowed him to lay back. Hands to his face, rubbing his eye sockets, Xnasis groaned. The Kannatch nodded to himself, shuffling to a seat across from his brother.
“I have come to the conclusion I do not understand who would experiment on other life forms in order to create destruction and chaos.” Xnasis shook his head, hands falling to his lap.
“I have...a thought,” Xexis approached the subject tentatively.
“I have many, but I’d love to hear anything but the sound of my own voice. Please, tell me,” Xnasis laughed through his exhaustion.
“Sinx.”
Xnasis stared at the ceiling of the room with a stoney expression. Xexis sat, hands folded in lap. The crown prince tapped his fingers across his stomach. The documents swirling around the walls all shifted into a stack and faded into existence as the previous, decorated walls around them.
“What proof do you have?” Xnasis kept his gaze leveled at the ceiling.
“None, other than what the infected said to me. That their mission was to kill the Council, to destroy life, to devour the Vroz. They specifically have it out for us. Who else holds a grudge as deep as that?” Xexis propped a leg over his knee, leaning over it as if they needed to whisper.As if they weren’t the only two Council members who would ever dare be awake at this late.
“No one has heard from the Sinx in generations, in ages beyond ages, even the Korzavic would have no contact. They disappeared from the stars long ago. We have no proof they even still thrive! Let alone live and hold a grudge, generations later.” Xnasis wiggled his way back up to sat straight. Unlike his usual, pressed presentation, this was an exhausted, unhinged Xnasis. The same brother Xexis was raised with and the same wacky genius who gotthem grounded for days when they were little for pranking the kitchens.
Long ago, once upon a time when things were less strict, his brother decided it would teach the kitchen a good lesson in patience with the young brothers...if they blew up a cauldron. The pieces flew across the entirety of the mess hall, the walls were splattered with it for days. Korzavic was furious. They were made to clean it up.
That was the day Xexis saw his brother slip and slide through chunks of hot gravy and crash into Xreck, causing them all to topple over and take a bath in the viscous substance.
A cherished memory of times when they were younglings being younglings. Not the stressed out, confused, and pressured adults. Xexis missed it for a moment, the freedom of his youth.
However, the pull to help, the desire to see this plague taken care of and destroyed, reminded him why he never flinched at being Kannatch. As he told Aphrodite, he wanted nothing more than to help people. That was his true calling.
“I will look into it, I will not waste time chasing the dead or the missing without proof...but I think your thought may have merit, brother, thank you.” Xnasis rubbed the ridge along his head. “How is…how are you and your mate? How are you and the Mphronatch?”
“Switching subjects because you do not know what to say?” Xexis teased.
“Very much so,” Xnasis snorted.
“We’re...” He trailed off as he stared down at his own lap. “Good. We’ve both had moments where we were willing to risk it all, andI think it hurt her as much as it did me. However, that’s who we are, and we understand the other is willing to give it all.”
Xnasis nodded solemnly, “Hmm, I understand.”
“Though, she has told me she loves me. Apparently, humans do not know they are in love until later. Their process is so strange, they hold back so much affection until they’re certain their mate is not leaving, I assume. It has been a lesson in the human mind.” Xexis smiled at his brother, watching Xnasis’ eyes crinkle and warmth returning to his face.
“And...have you produced an heir yet?”
