Slowly, she leaned her forehead against the center of his chest and the affectionate gesture filled him with something that he was beginning to recognize, although it was something he’d never felt for a lover before. At least, not this deeply.
“Tell me something,” she whispered, her lithe fingers coming to fiddle with the fabric of his shirt.
Khiva, throughout their visits, was keenly aware that he never talked of his past, of his family. And he had been on Everton long enough, around humans long enough, to recognize Evelyn’s subtle disappointment whenever he hedged around a personal question. For Keriv’i, while they were affectionate with lovers and family, there were certain topics that one did not speak of.
For Evelyn, however, he wanted to. She’d told him much about her life, though in some instances, like when she’d told him memories of her father, or the bullying she’d endured as a child for never speaking, he knew it was painful for her to do so.
He could do the same for her, he reasoned.
“I renewed my application yesterday,” he told her softly, “to the United Worlds. To the Missing Beings branch.”
Evelyn didn’t react at first, but then she pulled away from the center of his chest to look at him properly. Her expression was softened, but gave nothing away.
“For your mother and your brother?”
Khiva nodded in response.
“Do you…have any idea, any sense at all, where they might have ended up?” she asked softly.
“If they survived,” Khiva said first. “And even if they survived,veki. I know there was some aid from the United Worlds for survivors, but they would have been documented into the servers. Some neutral colonies were also accepting beings at that time, but the number of which is unknown.”
“Khiva…”
He looked at her and said, “I renew my application every Everton year because I do not want to give up on them, even knowing that finding out the truth, even if they are dead, is slim. There are trillions of beings in our universe and many were effected by the Great War. But I want to know what happened. I need to.”
“Of course, Khiva. That’s understandable,” she whispered, reaching out to touch his cheek. “How long have you been applying?”
“The moment I could first pay the application credit fee. Nine years ago, I began.”
“You have been working here for ten years, Khiva,” Evelyn pointed out, furrowing her brow.
His fingers tightened briefly where they rested against her backside. “Pax.”
She licked her lips and then asked, “Is the application credit fee really that high?”
“To some, no,” he said carefully.
“How much is it?”
“300 credits,” he told her.
Evelyn’s brow furrowed even more and she straightened in his lap. Shaking her head, she murmured, “I don’t understand.”
“What do you mean?”
She studied him and said softly, “When I first came here, I signed a contract. Valerie told me that every Keriv’i gets half of the clients’ credits fromeveryvisit. That’s 450 credits. 300 credits…that’s less than a night.”
Khiva’s lips pressed firmly together and after carefully combing through his thoughts, he said slowly, “You believe that Madame Allegria pays us half?”
“It…it was in the contract. It’s the Earth Council and the United Worlds law that she abides by it,” she whispered, but her eyes were wide and Khiva could see realization begin to dawn in her gaze. “Khiva…”
“If she paid us 450 credits after every client, she would have no Krave left,” Khiva told her bluntly. “We would have obtained passage off Everton long ago. Where would that leave her?”
“Oh my God,” she said, her face draining. “How…how much?”
“Evelyn…”
“How much after every client?” she asked, her voice rising ever so slightly.
