“It is my turn to see just how much of a male you really are.”
The silence within the hangar’s Control Room was deafening. No one wanted to be the first to speak, but Idris knew they all were peaking at him from in the corner of their eyes.
Those words struck a chord within him.
They were the same ones he’d told her during that night that still haunted him.
Idris couldn’t understand why she wanted anything to do with him. He had assaulted her in the practice room, ignored her because he was so disappointed with himself, and then nearly let her die so he could live. The only way he’d seen to save her life was to heal her with some of his secondary scales.
Now he was struggling to get him—her—out of his head.
This whole time, Aydin Lian had been Jaiya Lian, the fierce fighter pilot he’d met on the battlefield. She was the one he’d loved finding and toying with, just to see her reaction. Now he knew why Aydin had seemed so maddeningly familiar.
“So, are you going to go after her?” His sister asked, strolling into the room with a letter in one hand and something black dangling in the other.
“You and I both know that I can’t.”
“There is no ‘we’ in this situation, brother. You are the only one who messed up here,” Ushyaz scolded, tossing him the two objects she carried. “You only meet a female like that once in a lifetime. So go.”
Idris caught the long lock of black hair and the letter she’d brought, confused.
He unfolded the letter, feeling his heart shatter as he began reading.
Prince Idris,
I wanted to explain myself to you, but you never gave me the opportunity.
The day before the mission trip, I was called into my Rear Admiral’s office. He ordered me and my wing to escort my brother on a diplomatic mission to meet you and plan a peace treaty.
When I visited my brother, he was a nervous wreck. He had already given up on the idea of forging peace.
How could I, in good faith, allow him to go on the mission, knowing that he was doomed to fail?
So I made a plan.
If I was going to restore my family’s name and gain recognition, I needed to make sure this mission succeeded.
I want to be the one to tell you about my family’s name—and how the CTA blamed both my mother and father for starting the war.
My mother was the senior diplomat’s assistant before she was killed when her vessel was shot down. My father, the former Admiral, was blinded by anger and refused to answer any hails from the Daextru, instead choosing to incite a war.
He was forced to retire in dishonor shortly afterward.
Because of my parents, and the fact that I am a female, no one has ever taken me seriously.
That is until I came and met you.
Working alongside you and your people has shown me how good life can be. You treated me with respect, despite our cultural differences.
But now my dream has come to an end. Instead of mocking me for being female, you’ve labeled me as a human. No matter how hard I worked on the peace treaty alongside you, I will always be part of the species that betrayed you, twice.
Before I chopped it off to disguise myself, my hair almost touched my tailbone. Once, you might have seen me as your equal.
I am leaving all of my honor with you, knowing whatever I have left will mean nothing when I return home.
Until the next life,
Jaiya Lian
