She glanced across the hallway to her parent’s door.Maybe that was why.This place represented a connection to her past.To two people who’d eagerly anticipated her arrival.Who’d died trying to protect her.
You didn’t easily walk away from that.
Kira crossed the hallway and rested a hand on the door.“Goodbye.”
This isn’t forever,she told herself.
Turning, she found Raider and Finn waiting for her.Packs similar to hers at their feet.
“You done with all the touchy feely stuff?”Raider asked.
“I am.Are you?”
Raider and Finn shouldered their packs as Kira walked past them.
“Finished half an hour ago,” he said.
Kira grinned.“I thought your eyes looked red.”
Raider stopped to touch his face.“They do not.”
“Whatever you say, Raider,” Kira called as she reached the first of the many flights of stairs that they’d have to travel to reach the world gate.
Raider looked at Finn in panic.“She’s lying, right?They’re not red.They look perfectly fine, don’t they?”
Finn barely glanced at him.“I’m unwilling to comment on human departure ceremonies.”
Kira nearly choked on a laugh.She was grateful to be in the lead so Raider couldn’t see her expression.
Mostly, she’d been teasing, but his reaction made her want to poke him some more.
She wouldn’t because she wasn’t a monster.But, oh, it was tempting.
The two followed her down.
And down.
And down.
Until finally, they reached a set of ancient looking doors deep in the heart of the fortress.
As with most things Tuann,kiwas needed to unlock them.
Since she was unable to access her soul’s breath, that left Finn to do the honors.He stepped up to set his palm on the blue gem at the center of the insignia carved into the stone doors.It looked like a starburst.A pair oflu-ongtwined around the gem, until you couldn’t tell where one left off and the other began.
Closing his eyes, Finn channeled his soul’s breath, letting it flow through the unique pattern that represented their House.One that mirrored the entanglement of thelu-ongin front of him.He added a personal flourish at the end that acted like a signature of sorts.
The doors parted, revealing the circular platform on the other side.
“We’re here,” Kira announced, stepping through.
Raider sounded resigned as he followed.“Back where we began.”
It did feel oddly like they’d come full circle.The gate through which they’d arrived on the planet stood framed against the backdrop of the cliffs and ocean.
In this case, the “gate” was a pair of pillars upon which complicated runes had been carved.The structure of the language was utterly alien to Kira despite the fact she carried some of those same runes on her skin.Most of them were invisible until her primus came out to play.
She didn’t know who was responsible for the runic language or where it came from.Just that only the very oldest and most educated among the Tuann could read it.
