Alien Soulmate(9)

Angen's father, Kithairin, had been killed in a Des'kos attack, but since Angen had been his only child, Angen had been groomed for leadership from a young age. He had always spoken about how his father was hard on him, making sure that when the time came, Angen would know what he needed to do to take up the mantle of leader.

Ithril had never known his grandfather, but he had heard the stories. The man was strong and brave, and he'd killed many Des'kos rebels before a blaster beam to the back had finally toppled him.

So many times he'd wanted to ask how it was possible for Angen to be so peace minded when he'd trained with his father who had wanted to even things out with the Des'kos. It was only the lack of support and arms that had kept Kithairin from waging a full on assault with the Des'kos, and Angen had gathered plenty of support and had increased the arms and training of the Sitheri warriors almost ten-fold since he'd taken over. And for what? So they could twiddle their thumbs and keep giving more and more to those who wished them harm?

It didn't sit right, and Ithril wasn't going to see it happen. He was going to use his father's preparations and his grandfather's drive, and he was going to be the first leader the Sitheri had ever had that would actually do something about the threat to end it.

He smiled and finally picked his head up from the table, rubbing at his face. It was going on two full days since he'd last slept, and he was seriously considering taking a milder form of the sleeping tonic he'd given to Carver and passing out for the next several hours.

A knock on the door halted his train of thought, and he frowned. "Come in."

The door slipped open and E'lira entered on light feet, dressed in her mourning blues with her eyes downcast. She glanced around the room once she had closed the door behind her and frowned.

"Have you seen Carver?" she asked. "I thought he would be in here with you, but I haven't seen him since last night. I… I wanted to speak to him."

Ithril sighed. An unfortunate side effect of this whole plan was having to lie to his sister. E'lira had lost enough people in her life, and he hated having to be the one to tell her that she had temporarily lost another. Especially since he for one knew that Carver would never have left on his own.

But he reminded himself to think of the bigger picture and shook his head. "No, I haven't. I think… E'lira, you might want to sit down for this."

Her eyes went wide, and she dropped into the nearest chair. "What? Ithril, you're scaring me. What's happened to him?"

"I… I went looking for him earlier, to see if we could talk before the Council meeting. But I couldn't find him. His rooms were trashed, though, and it looked like he'd packed in a hurry. And one of the transporters is missing. I think… I think he's gone, E'lira."

The silence in the room was deafening, and Ithril's stomach churned as he waited for his sister to absorb that.

"What do you mean gone?" she asked. "Where would he go?"

"I don't know. I thought the worst at first, but there was no sign of forced entry, and no one reported seeing anything. If he'd taken a transporter no one would have stopped him since he has leader clearance now. I don't know. Maybe he just needed some time after Father… Maybe he just needs space or something? I don't know."

The despair in E'lira's eyes almost broke him, but he firmed his jaw and his resolve. "It'll be okay," he promised softly. "I'm not going to abandon you, E'lira. You're not alone."

She stiffened and narrowed her eyes at him as if looking for something. "I know," she said. "I know I'm not. I… need to think."

Ithril didn't stop her when she got up and left the room, but he slumped in the chair with a sigh. Hopefully every day wouldn't be as taxing as this one, or he wouldn't have any energy left for fighting the Des'kos when the time came.





Chapter 3: Healthy Curiosity




Colorful swearing spilled out of the living room and into the kitchen as Vivian rummaged in her box, looking for the part that she knew she had just seen. "Where is it?" she muttered under her breath, lifting the box and looking under it and even going so far as to stick her hand under the couch to see if it had rolled away when she wasn't looking.

"I swear to god, I am going to turn this whole place inside out if I can't find that stupid—oh. Never mind. False alarm."

"Was it in your other hand?" her friend Elijah asked, sighing as he came out of her kitchen with a tray of food and two sodas. "If it was in your other hand, I'm withholding this dinner I made for you."

"If by made you mean ‘picked up from the Chinese place down the block', then I'm not too worried about it," Viv fired back with a grin. She dropped the part back into the box and scooted over to the low table, wiping her hands before grabbing for the soda and cracking it open. A few long sips later and she felt more refreshed than she had before, and she pulled out the wooden chopsticks and cracked them into two so she could tear into the steaming food in front of her.