I didn't know the solution yet, but I couldn't let it go. Vareo awkwardly forced himself to get riled up to activate his runes like he was preparing for battle once more. He was doing that in bursts to help heal my loh, which miraculously was working. Genbi said I'd be able to leave the medtank soon, but they still didn't know how long the effects of Vareo's radiation would last. They reminded me that even Lord Zorn was requesting Vareo's presence several times while he was recovering.
Something about the shol species reacted well with estrelds.
"We're approaching Krelis," Genbi announced.
The damned krelin ship had already departed from Delta-Fal before we could do a recovery mission for Belder, Yueril's second in command.
"And you think she'll be there?" I wondered out loud.
"The human was meant for the queen there," Yueril reminded us all. "They'll have wanted to keep her to tend to him if anything went wrong. She wouldn't have left someone in need. It's likely she went willingly. We'll know for certain if I get in range of her comms. It's on the way to Estreldez, regardless."
He lifted his hand to the outside of the medtank and smiled sadly at me. I lifted my own hand and pressed my palm to the surface between us. We hadn't discussed things between us yet with everything that's been happening, but I knew he was worried. He swore to me that he would stay on Estreldez if I wasn't able to live anywhere else.
I grinned to myself with the thought that I was sure the Almder would have something to say about that. There were things I had to discuss with the leader of my planet after seeing the results for myself from the medic. Lord Zorn, or Ordin, as was his rightful name. The Moon God depicted in monuments, and the namesake of the Ordin rock deep in the mountains of Estreldez. It was more casually referred to as the glorbin flower after being the favorite food source of glorbins, but even those little annoying creatures were in some respect named after Ordin for being friendly and capable of burning off their food in self-defense, making themselves temporarily invisible long enough to be out of reach. They became clever enough to disappear and steal your food right from your mouth if you don't chew fast enough.
I learned that the difficult way, living outside the clan near the mountain, but I'm sure a few of them made their way into the clan occasionally. Not including the few times I purposefully baited a few to do so when I was younger.
According to Ordin, Almder was his mate, and I needed to know if she was my genetic spawn maker. If she was, then did my mother take me from her? Lying to me my whole life... Or maybe she had sent my mother away after realizing that I was not hers?
I really didn't know the whole story, and though I held resentment towards my mother before this, no matter what I found out, it wouldn't change that I loved her, and she cared for me until her return to the great rock.
"Where is your mind at?" he asked carefully.
"I might not be accepted on Estreldez..."
"It's likely you're the leader's spawn there," Genbi added. "Lord was convinced you had her features, even though you do not have her loh coloring."
No one on the ship called him Lord Zorn anymore since Vareo sent him back to the rock. It was as if, by his end, the title of Zorn was stripped from him. Who would take his place, I didn't know, but there were curious glances aimed at everyone in this command room from who they may see as the previous leader's heir stuck in a medpod, the ever devoted second-in-command Genbi, and the two warriors that defeated him in a duel, Vareo and Yueril.
I knew he wasn't a god of my planet, but I still believed in every estreld's return to the rock, though his would be more in spirit than body. There was no discussion in this room that convinced me what the future of the Birds of Zorn would look like, but not a single bird addressed anyone as the Almder of Zorn, future lord, or otherwise.
The prospect of discussing my future with the birds was more appealing than thinking about whether the Almder of Estreldez was my spawn maker. My mother who raised me was certain I wouldn't be welcomed in the clan, and that would mean she was certain the Almder wouldn't accept me. I refused to think she lied to me about something so serious and still kept the secret on her last breath back to the great rock.
Everyone was staring at me now. Genbi hadn't asked a question, but by the looks of things, they had expected some kind of response to his theory about my genetic connections to the leader of my planet. That would, of course, make me an heir to guiding the clan's future, and either make my reunion to Estreldez a prominent one that could benefit us or a target for being destroyed. It's just as likely my mother was correct in not being wanted and I would be rejected before ever reaching the farthest moon, Bina.
The planet was easily protected against unwanted visitors with the strong radiation fields around the many moons.
Finally, I spoke, since no one else would, "Even if they test me to confirm the claims, I don't want to be the next in line as Almder of Estreldez. I've never been part of the clan, and I wouldn't even know how to do such a thing, but we should consider that making any claims of being the Almder's daughter could result in an outcome we aren't prepared for. If Ordin was telling the truth, then the Almder is capable of dark things."
"All leaders are capable of dark things," Vareo said while pacing in front of the monitors. He appeared nervous and exhausted before he groaned and slammed his fist into the wall. Then he stormed out of the room.
"He knows that he can't go with you. One of our vessels isn't responding to our communications to inform them of what's happened," Genbi explained. "It's one of the slave ships, and from experience, it means someone was dumb enough to take advantage of its smaller crew to steal from us."
"You're dropping me off," Yueril acknowledged with a nod that he would be on his own to find Belder down on the planet Krelis below.
Genbi smiled. "Not without your own ship. Though smaller, it will do fine enough to get from this planet to anywhere within a few cycles. It also happens to be of the same make the krelins use."
"Capable of landing on their planet without suspicion, as long as we locate where to land," Yueril agreed. "My crew will take it from here. In many we rise, I give thanks." He returned his attention to me and grinned. The sound of suctioned air and water gurgled in my ears as my medtank drained.
The mask around my mouth unclasped and snapped back into the tank wall. Strands of light green hair clung to my face without the weightlessness of the tank's gel. I hadn't thought about how much it'd grown during the long periods of unconsciousness, but it reached below my shoulders in an uneven mess.
It wasn't until the front of the tank began rotating to open that I panicked because I hadn't used my legs in so long. I feared I'd fall flat on my face.
Yueril kept his eyes on me through the viewing panel, and I locked on as he carefully unlocked the bar I leaned on. His tail wrapped under my arms, and I blushed at the first real touch in several cycles that brushed against the side of my breast. He seemed to understand why I turned my gaze away, and whispered, "There is a saying from my tribe to the Goddess Lumei; on your lips I share with you the fate of the stars. There are three times in a trill's life that we use this phrase."
I wasn't sure where he was going with this, but I enjoyed the way he used his own tongue and then translated it for me. With my legs free from the medpod, he wrapped his arms around me, pressing my damp flesh to his robes without a care for how the evaporating gel should stain his fabrics. Though fabric was the last thing on my mind as I felt his hard scales beneath, wishing that there was no such robe at all between us. Fluttering wisps of air breezed through the top of my head as he cradled me to him.
"When we give someone our name, in respect we say this so that we may meet again to use our names with honor when spoken," he continued. "When we take our last breath, we say this to join the ones we love in the fabric of the universe."
