The effort that took left the monster's mind unguarded, but that was not comforting in the least.
Naima caught glimpses of the Fearless in its past lives, the terror it had reaped, the worlds it had destroyed, the forms it had taken. That was long before any other species was strong enough to take it on.
The first Fearless, born on some deserted rock in the middle of a dark, empty space was horrifying. It had reigned the longest and the Fearless who lived now hadn't forgotten a damn thing.
Naima knew she was dying.
It didn't bring the petrifying paralysis she'd expected. Instead, Naima was filled with rage at the creature who thought it owned everything. Like a coward, it had struck her when she was down. With crystal clarity, Naima knew the bracelet hadn't dropped by accident.
It protected her, but the protection it offered wasn't foolproof. Bit by bit, the Fearless had clawed its way back into her mind, making Naima become careless with the bracelet. With her mind distracted by the seemingly endless argument she was having with herself about what was right and wrong about love, she’d become sloppy.#p#分页标题#e#
She gritted her teeth, remembering how she'd played with the device without realizing she was doing that.
I will not die like this, Naima swore. You can crawl back into whatever ice hell you climbed out of.
In her mind, the Fearless laughed.
And Naima fought for her life.
It was a race against time. The monster only needed to keep her still and silent until Naima froze, light years from the empty ice fields that were killing her. Her teeth clattered in the unholy cold, but her mind was as sharp as ever. The hot water steaming on her helped a little, but it was beginning to freeze on contact.
Out of the corner of her eye, Naima could see the lifestone's glow in her room. The temptation to crawl to it was great, yet she didn't dare to. Everything else Audrey had said had come true and Naima wasn't about to give the Fearless one more advantage it didn't need. If it knew she had the lifestone, or she touched it when they were linked like this, she had no idea what could happen next.
The floor was turning into an ice field beneath her, freezing her skin to the ground. Naima growled in fury, trying to push herself up. Even from a lifetime away, in a weakened state, the Fearless was one of the most powerful creatures in the galaxy and nearly impossible to fight
At some point, it seemed to Naima it was snowing in the shower, but she couldn't know if it was actually that cold in there or if it was the icy world the Fearless crept on, projecting it into her mind.
It didn't matter. There was only one thought in Naima's mind. Noise.
Actually, there were two, but she couldn't think of Braen at that moment. The fight she'd had with the general was the reason she laid there, all her defenses down. Thinking of how badly she needed him by her side didn't make Naima feel any better.
She forced herself to concentrate on Kerven, but even he only existed in connotation to Braen. The general had appointed his most dutiful warrior to keep guard over her. Behind Naima's door, Kerven still waited for any sign that she might be in trouble.
Inch by agonizing inch, Naima pushed herself up. She could feel the Fearless rage and it gave Naima strength to know she was giving the monster a hard time.
Naima had her destination in sights even as her eyelashes turned to icicles. Right by the shower stood a long lamp that illuminated the small room. It was the only thing in the room that wasn't wall-mounted and Naima suspected Braen had it brought to her to remind her of Terra, where such nostalgic items were a luxury.
The reminder that despite his ferocious intensity, Braen still cared deeply about her, helped. It felt incredibly two-faced of her to revel in this tiny tidbit of affection when she had pushed him away just hours before, but she was grasping at any straws that she could find. Naima managed to push herself out of the shower, wrapping her fingers around the leg of the lamp.
Her body was shuddering so hard it was difficult to maintain the grip. The lamp froze under her touch as Naima channeled the inhuman cold.
In her mind, the Fearless roared, but their connection was still too weak for it to kill her simply by wishing Naima to die. Well, at least kill her quickly.
What should have been a long, tormented scream was nothing more than a whimper as she gasped for air. It felt like even her blood was freezing solid.
The end wasn't far, but Naima wasn't about to give up either. Seeing what the Fearless was, what it had done... she was only more determined that she and Braen needed to find a way to kill it. And she did mean kill it, despite the Palians claiming it couldn't be done.
Anything that was born can die, Naima thought and pushed the lamp with every ounce of strength she had left.
The lamp toppled for a moment, before crashing to the ground with a thunderous clash.
As Naima heard Kerven rush into her rooms, she knew she had fucked up twice in the course of a single day.
I should have gone for the bracelet, Naima realized with furious, hot tears in her eyes as Kerven ran to her side, speaking urgently into his comm link.
She realized far too late that the Fearless had blocked the bracelet from her mind just as it had made her drop it before. It was too powerful for her to catch every little move, but Naima should have known killing her was not the monster's goal. It needed her, using Naima as a compass just as she was using the lifestone.
Hearing Braen's voice speak over the comm link, Naima wanted to warn Kerven to make the general stay away, but she knew that was asking for the impossible. Both by speaking and by expecting any force to keep the general away from her.
Braen was coming for her.
Her strength was gone, getting the attention of the man who was desperately trying to save her life. Kerven retrieved a soft blanket from her bed, wrapping Naima into it to warm her up as much as to cover his general's fated.#p#分页标题#e#
Her fingers were reaching out for the bracelet, but it was hopelessly out of Naima's reach.
Through her eyes, the Fearless saw everything. Braen storming into the room like a raging warrior god, coming to lift her into his strong arms without any hesitation. Alona following only a few steps behind the general. The concern in Braen’s eyes.
As Braen laid Naima on her bed, the android put its cold, metallic hands against her skin.
Naima winced, but Alona's touch became warm immediately, making heat rush through her entire body.
She could feel the Fearless laughing victoriously, having finally seen its enemies. That wasn't all. As Braen noticed the absence of the bracelet and retrieved it for her, the Fearless stayed.
Only it wasn't the monster itself. When the bracelet clasped shut around Naima's wrist, the creature was gone from her mind and only its dark laughter lingered.
But when Alona took its hands away, the coldness in Naima's bones returned. She was still freezing, somehow still on the unknown planet with the Fearless.
Braen's eyes burned like hellfire as the general listened to Alona explain her condition while Naima still fought to utter a single word, shuddering so hard that she thought the muscles would rattle free of the bones in her body.
"Change course," he ordered roughly the second the android was done. "We are going to Laveden. The Palians have to fix this."
"Commander," even Kerven dared to protest. "The Fearless. It grows stronger."
The look Braen gave him could have burnt a lesser man to ashes.
"This is my gesha," Braen growled and Kerven had no counter-argument to that.
Naima had quite a few, but she was unable to voice them. The part of her that wanted to live didn't want to, either.
The Fearless had gotten what it had wanted. They were racing against two clocks now. One to save the galaxy. And one to save Naima.
18
Braen
Knowing fear wasn't an emotion that Braen cherished.
He had been raised to believe that any kind of pain was a weakness that could be overcome. Through vigorous training and hardship, the sense of suffering was all but eradicated from a grown Brion warrior.
Some in the Galactic union believed they'd become immune to pain, which was just another in the long line of rumors the Brion Elders happily fed. The truth was that Brions considered immunity a weakness as well. Without a fight, nothing was worth having, or achieving.
Fear, however, was something that had been reduced to pragmatism. Braen and his brother generals believed that a warrior should know a healthy amount of dread in the face of a powerful enemy. To Brions, there was nothing glorious about over-confidence. A warrior's worth was their accomplishments, not perception of their own superiority.
Therefore, fear was synonymous to the correct interpretation of facts.
Looking at Naima lying on her bed, his gesha's body lifeless and shivering, Braen felt the true power of an emotion he'd thought long gone within him. His heart was beating so fast it seemed to pop right out of his chest. His hands that never shook trembled lightly, watching Naima fight for her life with a mixture of horror and rage.
It felt like his soul was being crushed. For a moment there, when Braen had thought he'd lost her, the pain had been so searingly physical that the general was certain his heart would stop if he saw his gesha dead.
For a Brion warrior, there was no worse feeling than being unable to defend their fated. Except perhaps to know that the last time he'd spoken to her, they were fighting. It was the absolute opposite of what he wanted, which was the chance to make her happy. Truly and thoroughly happy.