Khoth rubbed his temples some more and the tight expression left Jace’s face.
“Please, Gehenna, if you would speak with my parents?” Jace said.
Of course, Jace! Oh, I hope they will listen to me! Gehenna glided out of the room.
Through the glass walls, they both watched as Gehenna physically blocked the Parkers’ way. When Captain Parker attempted to dodge around her, she stretched out some tendrils that had the captain backing away. Finally, the two elder Parkers got out their phones and Gehenna was able to speak with them that way.
“She’s really got to fix her speech box or whatever,” Jace said dryly. “If she gives herself the voice she has in my head, she won’t frighten people as much as a giant, metallic squid does.”
“Indeed,” Khoth agreed, but then his mind turned to other things far more perplexing than Gehenna’s choice of form. “Earlier, what did you mean when you indicated that you had not won fairly?”
Jace’s eyelids had almost completely shut from Khoth’s massage. He opened them slightly. “Oh, yeah, well, the Osiris helped me in the fight. When you had me down on one knee, it showed me various methods to attack you. Like the perfect strikes.”
“I see, but no, I do not see. How is that not winning fairly? You used your abilities to defeat me,” Khoth pointed out.
“There’s a big difference between what you are able to do because you’ve trained for decades and what I can do because I was plugged into a tank and then given pin-point directions as to where your flaws are by an AI,” Jace replied dryly.
“On the contrary, the AI--two AIs, in fact--are a part of you. They are as much a part of you as my greater strength and speed are,” Khoth answered with a shrug. “We are all given various advantages and disadvantages.”
“But what I have wasn’t earned,” Jace told him with a shake of his head.
“We were not dueling to determine who has earned the win. We were dueling to determine your abilities in a fight against an opponent that is far superior to yourself,” Khoth reminded him.
Jace’s lips twitched. “Far superior, huh?”
“Yes, it is simple biology, Jace. Thaf’ell are superior to humans in our strength, speed and intellect,” Khoth told him.
That had Jace curling over. Khoth feared the young man was in pain. But those intriguing eyes were filled with mirth when Jace sat up again. He was laughing so hard that tears appeared in them. He wiped them away.
“Oh, man, and here I was worried that you would take losing badly!” Jace teased.
“I have no doubts about my abilities. I am quite--”
“Superior? Yes, I know. And you’re right. You’re amazing. The AIs just leveled the playing field a little bit,” Jace said with a nod.
“But now that I know that particular move you made, I shall not make the same mistake twice in our next training session,” Khoth informed him.
Jace’s eyebrows rose. “You want to duel again?”
“Of course. Do you think you have nothing to learn from me or Thammah or others?” Khoth asked.
Jace blinked. “Oh, I--I think I have tons to learn!” The young man then looked up at him through dark lashes as he added, “Especially from you though.”
“Then we shall train every cycle,” Khoth told him with a firm nod, feeling that heat again from examining this time Jace’s eyes and not his nude body.
A smile curled Jace’s full lips, which had Khoth staring at them for too long before Jace said, “Sounds like a plan.”
Now those lips were devouring sandwiches at an alarming rate, but Jace’s color was even better than before, his movement crisper, and his eyes brighter. Perhaps the brightness came from his belief that Khoth was going to take food away from him again though.
“Jace, maybe you and I could talk alone for a moment?” Captain Parker asked, his eyes meaningfully going to Khoth then Thammah.
“Anything you want to say can be said in front of them,” Jace said as he ate another sandwich. The “them” was himself and Thammah.
The Flight-Commander grinned as she settled back against a wall to listen to whatever information Captain Parker wished to impart.
Captain Parker grimaced. “I don’t think you fully understand that--”
“That the Alliance hasn’t really been our friend? That Khoth and Thammah could be ordered to grab me and take me to Haseon? Yeah, I know, but that’s not going to happen,” Jace told his father as he finished the last sandwich and gave the plate a sad look.
