Page 58 of Empire of Stars 4

Jace slowly turned around to face him, a mixture of amusement and horror on his face. “Our food is here.”

“That is wonderful. I--”

Jace let out a high laugh as he added, “My mother brought it.”

Confessions

Jace was afraid that his smile looked a little forced. He was really glad to see his mom! He was so relieved that she appeared perfectly fine after the battle. She’d even changed outfits and freshened up according to the AIs before coming here. She hadn’t wanted to concern him with any bumps or bruises showing. She didn’t want him to know just how bad it had been above Haseon.

When I wasn’t there. And she was in the Thaf’ell equivalent to a rust bucket. But she doesn’t even have a hair out of place, he thought.

Your mother is very strong. Her Xi and Xa are always in such tight control. I envy her that, Khoth said.

Me too. She’s uniquely able to keep it together on the outside even if she’s a mess on the inside.

“So what is this dish called, Khoth?” his mother asked, pointing to dark green shredded material that was interspersed with red bulges that reminded Jace of bloody eyes.

Jace had been moving that same material around his plate, because it glistened, i.e., slime and he’d had enough of slime to last a lifetime. And he didn’t want to hurt Khoth’s feelings by spitting anything out. He could picture the food flying end over end as he turned interesting shades of green.

“It is a seaweed we harvest from the nearby Salutian Sea,” Khoth explained and popped one of the strands into his mouth. The red bulges gushed when he chewed them.

Jace swallowed thickly. He trailed his fork through the strands and isolated them to the side of his plate. They must not touch anything else. They might contaminate the food he could eat.

The eggs–they were eggs, but not from a chicken and he had insisted the Osiris not show him the animal they were from–were quite creamy and delicious. There was still half a platter left of this so he devoured what was on his plate and scooped up some more. No one seemed to mind. Khoth smiled at him encouragingly.

“And the purple mash?” His mother’s fork hovered over what looked like dark purple mashed potatoes. “It’s sweet, but also salty. Quite nice.”

“It is called marva. A root vegetable that grows in most any ground. Quite nutritious.” Khoth smiled at Jace encouragingly again.

In his mate’s mind, he saw Khoth picturing feeding him some, but not in a sexy way, more in a way to lure a child into eating their vegetables. Jace’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. He’d just dipped the tines of his fork into the marva and licked them quickly. It was okay. But if Khoth thought it was healthy it was definitely suspect for not tasting good. He scraped the marva to the other side of the plate. Another food to be isolated from the eggs. He ignored Khoth’s disappointed look.

Check mate, Khoth, Jace teased. Can’t get me to eat healthy food.

Khoth’s blue-on-blue eyes slid to him. Jace, merely because it is healthy does not mean it is uninteresting to the palate or disgusting to one’s taste buds. If that were the truth of healthful food then it would not be good for us.

I know the truth! It’s going to be gross! I just know it. Jace curled an arm protectively around his plate in case Khoth wanted to put anything healthful on it. I’ll continue to eat the eggs–

Larva, Khoth cut in as he speared another one of the seaweed things.