“I have to pay for it.”
He waved a hand in the air.“It is nothing.I will take care of it, since my bride is in your hands, you should be travelling in comfort and security.The slip ships deliver both and are large enough to contain the shuttle.How does she sleep?”
“She sleeps in a living mass of moss and plants.Flowers bloom when she touches the stems.Her touch brought the tree of the Pericoffs back to life, and it provided her with the staff she has been using to walk.The damage was extensive.”
“And yet you have been assisting her.”
“She’s my cousin.”
That shocked him.“You’re blood kin?”He pushed Skylar for information.
“And Harwin’s.She is kin to both of us but was raised a distance away and was unknown to us until recently.”
“Her temperament?”
“Psychotically cheerful, and she seems to be having fun, but I think that is a direct result of the pain she has been in.Now that she is out of pain, she might become more sombre, but I don’t think so.”
“I am assigning you to her until our union has been consummated.After that, I will take her health and survival as my personal duty.”
He glanced back at the repair unit.“See if they can fix her hair.”
Skylar blinked.“I think that was on the list, but it requires a different unit.”
He nodded.“See to it.How have you been dealing with the grief of your people?”
“They are better when they can speak to their dead.Even better when they can hug them.”
“Contact?You can make solid projections?”
“I can.It is tiring, but I recover on the ship, and that is enough for the next visit.”
He looked at her.“You are related.”
“Correct.”
“So, she can work with your energies, and you can work with hers.What sustains her energizes you.”
“Apparently.Wait, what is supposed to happen?”
“You are to simply contain the memories of your people and record those that you can focus on.You will join the others and share memories of the last years of your world via your spirits.”
“So, not to run to where humans are in pain and help them ease into their situation?Pity.I am really good at that.”
“Continue as you like until I tell you to stop.”
“Fair enough.Lord Dytura, why did the designers build us into worlds that die?”
“They didn’t.I did.Sudden disasters create a certain detachment that illness and war don’t.I wanted to understand the mindset of those who died prior to the retrieval and those who are surviving now.”He paused.“Why were you going to the Pericoffs?”
“There was a pull.Chloe did great.Why do we have to wear the robes?”
“So that no one can judge you based on your appearance, and so that your species or others do not attack you.There have been incidents when females of your kind were alone and assaulted.The knowledge of how close some of you are to consort class is driving a black market.”
“Oh.Right.Well, I don’t look human anymore.”
He waved that off.“Doesn’t matter.Safe is safe and stupid is stupid.”
She was staring at him.“That is a human saying.”
