"Promise?"
"Promise."
We pack up efficiently, folding blankets and stowing gear quickly. A'Vanti pauses at the edge of the main pool one lasttime, squatting at the water's edge, she trails her hand through the water.
She's silent for a long moment, her expression distant. Then she touches her wet fingers to her forehead, a gesture I haven't seen before, but it carries the unmistakable weight of ritual.
She rises without explanation, and I don't ask for one. Some things belong only to her.
We make our way up through the tunnels, the air growing drier as we climb toward the surface. The ship sits where we left it, just inside the cave mouth. Sand has drifted halfway up the landing gear where the storm blew it in. The hull is coated in a fine golden layer, but otherwise the ship looks intact. Beyond it, the sunlight is blinding. The twin suns blaze in a sky that's been scoured clean, with not a cloud in sight.
I step past the ship and out onto the slope, shielding my eyes.
The landscape has changed. Sand has shifted and reshaped itself, dunes relocated, surfaces scoured smooth. In the settlement below, a few buildings are half-buried in fresh drifts, and the plaza is barely recognizable. But the community center still stands, its curved roofline rising above the sand like a ship cresting a wave.
Built to withstand the harshest storm, just like its architect.
A'Vanti steps up beside me and sees it too. Her spine straightens, her chin lifts, and I see the professional pride settle over her like armor. Her building survived. Through abandonment and neglect and a sandstorm that reshapes the land itself, her work endures.
We clear the sand from around the shuttle's ramp and thrusters. It's a quick job, ten minutes at most. Then I run diagnostics while A'Vanti stows our gear. Everything comes back green.
"Ready?" I ask, settling into the pilot's seat.
A'Vanti takes the co-pilot's chair. Her hand finds mine on the armrest between us.
"Ready."
We lift off into the clear Cerastean sky, leaving Brishar behind. The settlement shrinks beneath us. The community center, the plaza, and the cave mouth leading down to our underground sanctuary gets smaller and smaller until it blends into the desert. I bank the shuttle westward, toward the capital.
The flight is smooth and easy, the air clean and calm in the storm's aftermath. Spire Mountain rises ahead of us, its jagged peaks sharp against the sky. A'Vanti watches it pass in silence, one hand resting on the viewport glass.
The peace of this moment settles into me. A'Vanti beside me, and Brishar shrinking behind us, and nothing ahead but home.
I think about the cave. About telling her things I'd never told anyone. About the way she listened to my grief and sorrow without flinching, without fixing. Just held it alongside me.
And then, because the door is open now and I'm tired of letting it swing shut again, I think about Danny.
The thought of him doesn't hit the way it usually does. Not the choked static, not the guilt that I'm alive when he's not. I think about his face. And the dog-eared paperback I have tucked away in my footlocker, the margins filled with Danny's neat handwriting. And I realize I haven't truly dealt with my pain. I've just perfected not looking at it.
When we get back,I think,I'm calling Dr. Singh.
Not because I have to. But because I want to be the best mate – the bestvel'sharI can be. And that means taking care of my mind with the same care I give my body.
I bring A'Vanti's other hand to my lips and press a kiss to her knuckles.
"Mate," I murmur into her skin.
She turns to me, and the smile on her face is brighter than both suns combined.
"Mate," she says back.
The capital rises ahead of us, its towers catching the morning light. I thread the ship through the now familiar gaps between buildings, the empty streets passing beneath us, until the military base comes into view on the city's edge. Through the viewport, I can see a handful of familiar figures waiting near the hangar bay doors. I spot Chelsea's compact form bouncing on her toes, D'Rett's solid silhouette beside her, L'Tarne's tall frame on her other side. L'Zaen and Ally wait inside the hangar's wide entrance.
"They're all out there," I say. "Welcoming committee."
A'Vanti squeezes my hand. "Good. I want them to see."
"See what?"
