“Whatever you need. I will prove to you that you can rely on me for anything. Once my arm is healed, you will find yourself unable to get rid of me.”
“Don’t you have a job to do?” Eleri laughed. “I’m sure you have an IA contract just like everyone else here.”
S’samph’s tail uncurled. “Not during the flooding season. We will spend our days mostly indoors until the season of planting.” He did not feel it was time to share the implication that most children were created during the season of flooding. It was a conversation for another time. He escorted her back to the clinic, and it was with some reluctance that he uncurled his arm from her shoulders. As he watched her leave, it took all his willpower not to follow.
CHAPTER 18
ELERI
Eleri tried a tiny pinch of the flowers S’kasia had given her, but they did little to quiet S’samph’s words whirring around in her mind. Now, as she walked to S’kasia’s nest, the exhaustion was tangible. S’samph wanted to prove he was reliable. Eleri craved stability. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a truly safe environment to call home, but the stubborn knot of doubt about S’samph’s ability to provide her with this promised situation was impossible to ignore. There was no doubt in her mind that he was trying to prove his reliability. The question she had to answer was whether or not she had the ability to trust his efforts.
She pinched some color and alertness into her cheeks and hefted her bags of ingredients into a more secure position on her shoulders as she prepared to knock on the door.
As it turned out, there was no need. S’kasia greeted her at the door before she could even make a fist to knock.
“You’re quick,” Eleri commented as the door swung open.
“If you need to knock, it means I have been a poor hostess,” S’kasia said by way of greeting. “Thank you for visiting my nest. I have everything ready to make the g’gek. If S’samph stops by, we’ll pretend you aren’t here. Otherwise, we’ll get no peace from him.”
Eleri laughed as S’kasia’s tail twitched with amusement. She lifted her bag of ingredients. “I came prepared with my own recipe. It wasn’t easy to find everything the same as what we have on Gaia, but I think these will work well enough.”
“Good. We shall have a feast, and if we feel charitable after we have our fill, we can invite S’samph and K’kaen to share.” She pushed the door wider to usher Eleri inside. Very differently from S’samph’s sparse nest, S’kasia’s home was well decorated with ornate woven wall hangings and bowls of decorative stones.
“Are these from Latilla?” Eleri asked as she gestured to one of the hangings, which depicted a shining oasis in the middle of a desertlandscape. In response, S’kasia held the fabric out for her to touch. Not wanting to be rude, Eleri accepted the invitation and ran her fingers along the length of the weaving.
“Yes. I rescued them from I’lata’s temple before we fled the planet. My sisters in flame and I tried to save as many holy relics as we could before the city crumbled.” She ran a single claw along the hem of one of the hangings. “I’m afraid I don’t know what happened to the rest of them. We were all scattered to different colonies in the IA. Those of us who survived will likely never see each other again.”
Eleri moved her fingers away from the fabric. “It’s lovely. I’lata is your deity?”
“Yes. The goddess of our world. The shifter of sands and heart of the sacred flame.” She settled her hand at the center of the tapestry. “I have no living clutch to pass along the traditions. Nor are there younglings. But you offer me a rare kindness in your willingness to hear our stories.”
“Religion isn’t really a thing on Gaia anymore, or at least not for most people. The stories are beautiful though. I think my grandmother knew some of the old stories once. She taught me how to sing about them, but I never learned what the words meant.” Eleri stared hard at the wall hanging, at the burning embers clutched in a goddess’s hands. “I suppose my grandmother didn’t know what they meant either.”
S'kasia smiled and shifted a single citrine stone from one bowl to another. Eleri suspected it meant something, and she also suspected that S’kasia wouldn’t tell her even if it did. The other female enjoyed her mysteries as much as she enjoyed tormenting S’samph.
“And what of your sires? You left them behind. Why?” S’kasia wasted no time asking the hardest questions.
Eleri lifted one corner of her mouth in a bit of a grimace. “My father died when I was small, and my mother,” she paused, trying to think of a generous way to describe her last few encounters with her mother before she left Gaia, “she had other priorities.”
“I have read your file, unlike my ravik of a clutch brother.” She paused to allow a quiet moment of consideration. “Although I assume he has likely read it by now. If he has not, I will remove what’s left of his frill.”
“There probably isn’t anything that important in there.” Eleri let out a breath as the conversation shifted to her personal life.
“Your mother was listed without any description of vocation. You also have a brother, but you do not speak of him.”
Eleri fiddled with her bag, swaying it against one leg and then the other. She’d come to Gaia preciselyto escape her family, and talking about them gave them more reality than she wanted to remember. But she couldn’t avoid the question entirely. “Rhys consumed most of my mother’s attention. She struggled to hold employment after things got complicated with him.”
“Our egg mothers send us to a creche once we are past infancy. How many years has your brother collected?”
“Twenty-five standard years. He’s an adult by all measures.”
“Then why is he your mother’s responsibility?”
Eleri found herself with a grim smile. Hadn’t she asked herself the same question a thousand times before?
“So, you left. Your family did not value your contribution.” S’kasia’s words were not intended to be unkind, but Eleri had fully intended to keep her past shoved into a dusty compartment in the back of her mind. Talking about it with such objective bluntness was a shock to her system.
“Yes. I couldn’t be part of their plans any longer.” Eleri stared down at the bag of ingredients by her feet.
