It was a good attempt to cheer him up, and he let her change of subject sweep away his pain for another day.
“I don’t understand that reference but I suspect that you are making fun of me.”
“No,” Callie breathed dramatically, her hand coming to her chest, “What ever gave you that impression?”
He shook his finger at her. “Careful, female.”
Callie grinned at him, her little fangs on full display. Adorable.
He cleared his throat and grasped his hands behind his back and started walking again so he didn’t grab her and thrust her against the wall and ravish her here in the dirty corridor.
“Back to my tale of woe. As I said, I was on pilgrimage at the time of the Fall. We—”
“What kind of pilgrimage?”
He blew out a laugh and stopped to tap her nose with his forefinger. “If you would cease interrupting me, I will tell you.”
He had to jerk his finger out of the way when she snapped her teeth at him. He clutched his hand and stared at her.
“Go on,” she crooned, fluttering her eyelashes at him.
He rolled his eyes and continued moving, his hands coming behind his back again as the more she played with him the more his ardor rose and the more brittle his control became.
“Rijitaran youths were encouraged to go on a pilgrimage to cities on various planets as a sort of responsibility test before entering adulthood. It was a way for young people to test out being independent while still under the comfort and protection of their parents house. The planet chosen was entirely dependent on what discipline the youth was thinking of pursuing. For example, if the youth wanted to be a Fang pilot, they would go to Uvov, where the largest Fleet Academy was. Or if they wanted to go into medicine, they could go to a city with a large hospital. I, being groomed for tech security and surveillance, went to Geitus, where one of the largest orbital operations stations specializing in long range reconnaissance and monitoring was located. I remained there for four years learning with a group of similarly aged security hopefuls.”
“Oh so it's kind of like going away for college.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps.”
They’d come to the end of the corridor where an enormous nano door plugged the way forward. Iridescent silver that appeared like a liquid metal flood was being held up by an invisible force swirled and rippled, distorting their reflections so that what stared back at them were disconcerting, vaguely humanoid shapes.
“What the hell is that?” Callie asked, shifting closer to him. She did it unconsciously and he couldn’t help but grin. His Callie trusted him enough to seek his protection, even from something as mundane as a nano wall.
He waved his hand across the surface of the liquid and Callie gasped when it shivered and solidified into a wall.
“It’s a nano wall. Top of the line security. Coded to my living DNA so that only I can open it. I have to be alive as well, so no chopping off hands to gain access. It wouldn’t work.”
He knocked twice on the now solid wall and a door opened smooth and quiet.
“Wow. That’s pretty cool.”
Rathal’s chest puffed out at her compliment. “It is. Come, let me show you my collection.”
They stepped through the wall which swiftly turned liquid again once they were through. On the other side was a cavernous room.
“Oh, holy shit,” Callie breathed, stepping forward in wonder.
Rathal watched her, pride suffusing him. “It has taken me thousands of years to collect it all. Bit by bit.”
Gray square pedestals rose in neat rows a hundred across and thousands deep. The room seemed to stretch on forever. Figurines, statues, paintings, jewels, pottery, books, scrolls, tech, broken pieces of buildings, old columns, bones, animals taxidermy, all sat atop the pedestals. Lights shone from a black ceiling forty or so meters high to shine down on each one so that it created a darkened museum feeling. The walls and floors were rich dark wood to bring warmth. On the front of each pedestal, below the artifacts, was a plaque detailing what the artifact was, its age, who made it, and where it came from.
Callie stopped in front of a stunningly vivid mountain landscape painting set into a beautiful wooden frame.
She crouched down and began reading the plaque. “Birsay Passage, K’rik Mountain, Ara’Ama. Galactic year 489574. Empress Minuvae Anu Yrneha.” Callie looked over her shoulder at him, eyebrows raised. “Anu painted this?”
He nodded solemnly. “Yes.”
She scowled, confused. “I thought everything was destroyed. I mean, what wasn’t stored in the Archive.” She stopped and looked at him guiltily. “You know about the Archive, right?”
