"I know, right?" she said. "Sometimes I still can't believe this is all happening, but it is. I hope you get to stay a bit longer, the others want to meet you too."
"The others?" Lana asked.
"Isolde and Leiya," Aria said, smiling. "Isolde is calling this a club."
Lana laughed.
"What, really?" she asked. "It makes sense though. It's four generals now?"
"Yeah," Aria said. "And when I said the hive mind was the scariest being ever, wait until you meet Leiya's gerion."
"Faren," Lana said at once. "Is he really that scary?"
"Isolde swears he can read minds. I nearly screamed when I met him. It's the eyes, I think. It's like staring into a snow storm."
Lana had heard something like that about the Monster of Briolina. But there was something else on her mind.
"What about Briolina itself?" she asked, the hope seeping into her voice.
Aria smiled again. She seemed to be doing a lot of that and Lana noticed herself mirroring her. She wondered if it was the effect of their gerions, still engaged in their conversation. Corden definitely had a way of banishing everything bad from her mind, so Lana didn't really doubt it was the same for Aria and the others.
"Briolina is amazing," she said. "It's the most beautiful planet I've ever seen. Granted, I haven't seen that many, I know you must have seen a lot, but it really is. You'll love it. There is something very vital about it. Every time I go there, I feel more alive."
"Spirit," Lana said, smiling. "Corden says the planet has spirit."
"Exactly," Aria agreed. "It's..."
She seemed to hesitate, to look for words for a second.
"Don't get me wrong," she said then, the happiness surrounding her like a cloak. "It's home. I don't know if it's Ryden or Briolina or this little one here in my belly, or all of it together. But it makes you feel like you belong."
Lana felt a weight lifting from her shoulders, one she hadn't even known was there. Only when it was gone did she notice that her smile was exactly as wide as Aria's.
No doubts anymore.
Corden's home was Briolina and Lana's home was with him. So in a way, she was going home too.