That leaves us backpedaling, even though we hate it.
I suppose that’s my fault. Thunar tilts his head, looking down on us, his expression shifting from me to Hyperion and back again. I made it a statement. Let me be more clear. Why didn’t you return, if you have indeed recovered the heart? He arches one eyebrow. And where is it?
Ten thousand blessed and none of them are making a single sound. Not so much as a murmur. They’re as concerned as we are. What did you come for? I lift my head and glare at him. Why did Father send you?
Oh, he didn’t send me. I volunteered. You know how he detests earth himself. His half-smile is infuriating. I told him when he chose you for this mission that it was a mistake. You don’t send a hatchling to do anything important.
You might have had an easier time. I straighten. You had quite a few advantages, such as knowing the heart was, in fact, a rock. You also knew that a human-blessed bond was required to stay here on earth for any length of time.
Thunar leans closer, his eyes narrowed. A lot can change in thousands of years, hatchling. Did all the earth blessed die, then? Were they too weak, or could they bond the earth-children after all? And where is the heart? When last I was here, the vanir?—
I open my mouth and roar. You should have told me about the vanir. You should have told me why we left here in the first place.
Thunar roars right back, his massive head twisting, his razor-sharp teeth snapping. We owed you nothing. Now give me the heart. He steps closer, his massive feet sinking into the soft sand. Why didn’t you portal in already to tell Father the good news and give it to him yourself?
We’ve been waiting to make sure that the recovery of the heart fixed our problem and that the blessed can lay eggs now.
You should have returned home and waited to see there.
Waiting to see if the blessed could lay eggs was an excuse. I didn’t feel good about taking Liz back with us, and I’ve been delaying our departure. But now, with Thunar pointing out the flaw in reasoning behind my delay, I don’t have another excuse. I can’t tell him we’ve all bonded our humans and none of us want to give them up. I can’t tell him we all want to protect the rest of earth’s humans from the vanir we released in the process of securing the heart.
I really can’t tell him I’m worried Father will kill Liz, or that I’d rather die than watch that happen.
We suffered some losses, recovering the heart, Hyperion says. We’re simply recuperating before returning home.
Why didn’t I think of that?
You look fine. Thunar looks beyond us. Why did you come here alone? How many of the blessed who came with you perished?
We’re simply faster than they are. As if my words summoned them, the strike blessed swoop toward us in the air, dozens of them. Once I confirm Asteria’s not among them, I ignore the reunions happening above me.
What on earth is that? Thunar’s staring with rapt attention, so I follow his line of sight and. . .see a few earth blessed who have followed the strike blessed.
Flying.
Larger than ever before.
I should have told them to stay put before launching my way over here, not that I could have kept this a secret.
Azar won the earth blessed quite the upgrade, Hyperion says. Or at least, his?—
They’re bigger, and they’re stronger, and I don’t recommend trying to eat one. He was about to tell him about Liz, and while she did manage to provide the earth blessed with their new, stronger forms, I’d rather not draw attention to her. In fact, if we can get Thunar to leave, maybe he never even needs to know about her at all. We can talk more about it soon. Why don’t Hyperion and I fly back and get the heart? You can take it to Father and let him know how we’re all doing.
Actually. Thunar comes as close to a scowl as the blessed get. Father’s preparing to bring all the blessed here. A few days ago, we stopped being able to consume even the earth blessed. He scowls. We thought you might know something about that.
Shoot.
Shoot, shoot, shoot. They didn’t get the upgrade, but they did get the resource processing problem. Why didn’t I think about that? Of course it would impact them too—our consumption problems have been ongoing. I can’t believe we didn’t expect this. While we frantically searched for humans to bond for our population here, I didn’t even think about the eighty or ninety thousand back at home.
Can your earth blessed process nutrition?
Thunar glares, and then his gaze moves to me. Can your more powerful blessed do it?
No one here can do it, I finally admit, seeing no way around it. Unless they’re bonded to a human.
Human—another word for earth child? He nods slowly. But otherwise, it’s the same as before—we need a connection to them to survive on earth. Hyperion looks annoyed but not surprised.
That’s information they really should have given me, and I can’t help glaring.
