She was afraid, but she had leaned toward him for protection. That was the greatest gift that she could give to a Herstrakaa of honor.
Mina turned her head up toward Voso after a few moments and met his eyes. It seemed as if the air between them suddenly sizzled, as it would in a heat wave, warping not from heat but from something that existed between them.
Mina stretched up to meet his lips when he lowered his head, and when their lips met, the exchange aroused in him a tenderness that he wanted to drink up. He moved a hand to Mina’s soft face, cradling her fine features, savoring the connection for as long as he dared. No Herstrakaa could ever “know” what it felt like to be bonded to a mate beforehand. Once it occurred, it was never to happen again. But countless descriptions existed detailing how it felt, and Voso sensed that despite its unlikeliness, this Human was capable of stirring those feelings inside of him. What he had no way of knowing was how close he was to the point of no return.
He could feel himself sinking, sinking deeply into a state of being that was not under his control…
The moment, however luckily or unluckily, was interrupted suddenly by the sound of Mozok’s voice. Mina was startled, and her eyes flew open, her tense muscles breaking Voso’s connection with her. They parted their embrace just as the Draquun emerged from the shadows of a pathway.
He was wearing his meditation robes, which meant that he was likely there to practice the Draquun art of meditation, Drieiskit, in the gardens; if this was the case, he would not have heard their conversation or seen their embrace.
Voso watched Mozok’s face carefully, but Mozok was, as always, largely unreadable. The Draquun in general were reserved and secretive, but Mozok was acutely so.
“You scared me,” Mina said, slightly breathless. She was still leaning against Voso and made no move to get away from him as Mozok approached. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“I was in Drieiskit,” Mozok stated, coming to sit by them. He chose a patch of grass and sat upon it casually, almost cheerfully—something Voso had not seen in him since long ago. Voso wondered if Mina’s presence was, as it was for him, cheering Mozok, returning some of the flavor of his youth.
He felt certain, though Mozok had never uttered this aloud, that Mozok, like him, felt the closeness of the danger of falling in love with Mina. Being mated to her.
It was only dangerous, Voso thought, because Mina really would have the upper hand if that happened: Humans did not form the same bonds as their races. To hear it told, “love” was something they could break free of.
“Voso was kind enough to show me how to get here,” Mina said. Voso was stirred by the smile on her lips, the delight that her voice showed. “We’ve been talking about them… the memorial, the architecture. They are so beautiful,” Mina said to Mozok. Her tone softened. “It is such a great gesture, to build this for a friend. It’s very… touching.”
Mozok looked up at Mina, and he looked for a moment like he might say something disagreeable. Voso sensed the conflict in his friend, saw it in his eyes and the flashes of varied sentiments that crossed his face. “It is kind of you to think of it like this. Though also very Human.”
Mina bristled in Voso’s arms. “Why ‘Human?’”
Mozok looked out at the storm, to where the spires of Old Celox occasionally peeked through the dark clouds and torrential rain. “Voso is not merely a friend,” he said. “He is a Troth—a blood brother. He saved my life, and so I could do nothing less than return his honorable act with my own.” Mozok paused, and as one of the glorious spires of the city emerged from the clouds, his mood seemed to shift from sentimental to combative. “It is for this reason that I cannot allow your species to come to Old Celox.” He looked back toward Mina. “You do not share this… hikstraka. You cannot. And I cannot shed mine.”
Mina bristled again, but she looked away from Mozok, over the gardens, out to the city, and with each passing moment that she surveyed the scene, she seemed to soften against Voso. “What is hikstraka?” she asked, and evidently she surprised Mozok, because he was, for once, momentarily speechless.
“It is a word with no translation,” Voso said gently. “It is the system of honor. But it is…” His voice trailed off as he tried to think of the words to explain it to Mina. Her language was so lacking in concepts, he sometimes marveled that Humans could communicate with each other at all.
“It is a biological system,” Mozok offered. “Not merely an idea.”
“I see,” Mina said, her voice small and thoughtful. Her eyes were on the city, which disappeared in the clouds as the changeable storm became, as they were prone to do, suddenly worse.
“Can you understand, Mina, why we wish to see the negotiation fail?”
Mina breathed in slowly. She seemed poised, for a moment, to say “yes.” Voso was, in fact, so certain that she seemed ready to agree with Mozok, that he felt a pang of sadness and even fear. If she did agree with Mozok, then Mozok might ask her to end Trothplight, and she might agree. As much as he knew that this was Mozok’s plan, and so he should want it as well, he did not.
Voso looked at Mozok with a stern expression, hoping he would catch his eye. He felt like they were in dangerous territory, but he could convey nothing more than a gut instinct and even vaguer desires. What did he want, after all? Mina to stay? Or Mina to go?
But it was Mina who changed suddenly, her mood souring and her mouth turning down into a hardened frown. Her body became stiff and she separated from Voso, leaving a sense of longing battering the side of his body where her warmth had only moments before warmed him all the way to his core.
“I can understand,” she said, “that you’d do anything to win.” She huffed and stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. “Does your code of honor include anything about being duplicitous? Lying? Cheating to get what you want?”
Mozok looked confused, as Voso was, by the sudden change in Mina’s attitude. Voso saw this brief confusion get replaced, as was Mozok’s tendency, by a wall of stern, emotionless hardness. “It does. We cannot.”
Mina scoffed and threw her arms out. “So what do you call this? All of this? You knew my translator hadn’t explained everything to me! So what about that?”
Mozok stood up as well. “I did not cheat. Or lie to you. And I shall not.”
“But you’ve been duplicitous,” Mina said. She clucked bitterly. “Everybody is. Code of honor or not. Everybody is duplicitous to get what they want, in the end.”
“Are you?”
It was Voso who asked that question, and Mina was clearly stunned for a moment. She froze and then spun around violently to look at him. She seemed to want very much to say something, but her words failed her. Finally she turned back to Mozok. “We all are,” she hissed. “That’s how the world works.”
