“How would oneharvestthe stone? Ethically, of course…” Ziggy pressed in an oddly fervent tone I’d never heard from him before.
At least, not outside of the bedroom.
Now the Hydrassian was squinting at Zig with obvious suspicion. “The only ethical way is to cut out the karnilian from the Trol after they die of natural causes. Otherwise, you are essentially removing the very piece of their essence keeping them alive.”
“Oh,” Ziggy choked out before growing silent, and it took everything in my power not to react to the uncharacteristic anxiety I could now feel coming fromhimthrough our bond.
“Well…” I cleared my throat, redirecting the Hydrassian’s attention back to me. “That explains why it’s become a scarce resource.”
“Indeed,” they softly replied. “Especially as each stone can only be used for a single ritual before turning to dust itself.”
Well.
Fuck.
Now, the silence was heavy onallsides, and I wasn’t sure what else to ask—not until I debriefed with the others.
“Thank you.” I smiled grimly at the Hydrassian. “This was extremely helpful.”
“You are most welcome.” The Hydrassian inclined their heads respectfully. “We only ask if you find the source of the karnilianwe sensed on Stellaria, you guard it with your lives.”
That’s the plan.
The feed to the holding cell cut, replaced by holograms of Honnor and Bron, who appeared equally grim.
“Well done, Micah,”Bron attempted a cheerful tone.“You acquired more intel from the Hydrassian than we were able to.”
I almost pointed out it was probably because I wasn’t using the Stellarian strong-arm method, but I bit my tongue. “Yeah… Well, I just want to beuseful.”
“You arealwaysuseful!” Ziggy vehemently hissed as he sexily glared at me. “You are useful simply byexisting.”
Oh.
Okay, then.
Honnor cleared their throat before piping in,“You all should return to Stellaria as soon as possible?—”
“No!” Ziggy barked, displaying an increasing level of aggression, even for him. “We are not bringing abeaconof war to Stellaria’s doorstep—not when we haven’t identified every species hunting for it. For…them.”
“So you would rather send out a beacon from your lone ship rather than allow our Star Units to protect you?”Honnor gently asked.
Ziggy looked like he was fighting one hell of an internal battle, so I stepped in, assuming my Space Daddy had a good reason for wanting to keep the situation as is.
“I could create shields for Pedro,” I offered. “When mine is activated, Ziggy can’t even smell me, so maybe it would also block thesongof the stone?”
Honnor nodded thoughtfully.“Yes, that could work. It would be helpful if we could test its effectiveness in some way?—”
“Send us the Hydrassian you have in custody,” Ziggy interrupted, staring down his maker as if they might say no. “Give them whatever ritual supplies they need and then Star Hop them to my ship. I would like to ask theeldersof their planet some questions.”
Now we’re talking!
I was ridiculously excited about the idea of visiting a new planet as the badass team we were, but I attempted to keep my cool while the space dads deliberated.
Wouldn’t want to ruin my bad bitch persona.
“Very well,”Honnor agreed, and I fist pumped in response.“And now that we know what sort of creature—what sort of situation—we have here, we will start gathering intel on our end.”
“While creating a distraction…”Bron added in a mischievous tone I’d come to realizeallStellarians possessed.
