A wave of giddiness rushed through her, excited to see what was at the top and out of her sight. Alluring, new, and exotic nature was one thing, but alien-made creations were another. Something built by a species that had no humanity.
With every step Sundamar took, that bonding feeling grew, expanding in her chest and stealing her breath. It made her belly flutter with something besides hunger, besides desire. It was a sensation she had never experienced before. She threw her arms around Sundamar’s neck, unable to hold back the sudden hug she needed to give him.
His arms tightened around her while she caught Quist’s eyes.I’m in his arms, and in his sight.Her thoughts were of the two of them.
Whatever waited for her at the top would be nothing less than completion.
“Are you okay?” Sundamar breathed against her hair.
“Yes... yes.” Was she? She turned to look at him and run her fingers through his loose hair.
“You’re shaking? Are you under threat of dying?”
A squeaky laugh escaped her. “No. What’s at the top?”
Quist hovered closer to them. “The main city where Galan awaits us.”
Galan.
He was the one light valos she hadn’t met. Her hand instinctively went to the necklace threads on her chest but the stone wasn’t there. Saying his name made the tingling sensation running through her heat up. Sundamar couldn’t climb the stairs fast enough.
Quist could fly me.But she didn’t like the thought of leaving one of them behind.
“Tell me about him?” she asked, suddenly shy, although already knowing he was the last piece that created their diamond.
“He’s the second. He was created at noon and was formed not in Lusheenn’s image, but in what Lusheenn wanted his image to be,” Sundamar said with a little bit of anger. “If something were to ever happen to me, he would rule.”
“Rule what?”
Sundamar shifted her and patted the side of the molo, “The light.”
“Ah.” Yahiro hugged him tighter. “Why do you sound unhappy?”
“He doesn’t have wings,” Quist answered softly and Sundamar nodded. “Sun wasn’t created with wings. He’s the only light valos ever brought forth without them.” The more he said, the more rigid Sundamar’s posture became. “Another reason why Lusheenn should be punished.”
Yahiro nuzzled his neck and frowned, feeling a sort of kinship. She knew what it was like to have nothing of something when everyone else around her had plenty of it. She wanted to comfort him but didn’t know what to tell an angel who couldn’t fly.
“I like you the way you are,” she whispered into his skin.
“Even if I can’t fly you toward the sun?”
She caught a wisp of his hair within hers and twirled them together. He stopped abruptly and watched her finger. “I don’t have wings either. Maybe... maybe you were created this way to be with me on the ground. The ground is stable, it’s always there, and it doesn’t disappear. Like you? Even the sun disappears each day.”
He caught their coiled hair and tugged on it. “I'll always be there.”
“Me too.” It was a promise.
He set her down on her feet on the wooden stairs and held her upright. Sundamar’s chest was bare but he wore his armored leggings, and looking between them, she wanted clothes of her own again. Yahiro took a step back and looked down at herself, stretching and testing her muscles at the same time. Her skin was marked and well-used, even bruised in some places from her valos.
Quist landed on the step below her and lightly placed his hands on her hips.
“We hurt you and the light didn’t heal you.”
She frowned, remembering this conversation with Sundamar and her eyes landed on Quist’s side where his terrible stitches were still in place. “I heal slowly,” she said and reached down to brush her finger over his wound. “I should take those out now. I don’t think you need them anymore.”
He pressed her hand against his stitches. “You’ll do no such thing, Yahiro. I plan on keeping this forever.”
She let out a short laugh. “They’re going to fall out eventually, pushed out by your own body. You can get infected...”Sigh, they don’t get infections.She moved her hand.And the strings already looked to be part of his skin.
