RYST

  I walked towards the Terrace doors just as I had done everything else since my tailor Mauren had dropped off the huge trunk at Coal Station two days ago.

  I moved as though in a dream, barely here and barely there, every motion guided by something I did not understand.

  Was Nayth my Ahtah? I still didn’t know. How would l know? I would only know by living it. My foot took another step on a path I could not see.

  The whole dinner had been as surreal as everything else in the last 48 hours. Nayth, with kind eyes and soft smiles. With thoughts that escaped his mind of kissing my bare shoulder and something else that was all humor. He was soft smiles on the exterior, but inside he was full of some secret joke that I didn’t know but that kept me smiling too.

  My inner self kept wanting to wrap around him, around all that chocolate skin. But I couldn’t do that—not yet. Not until I knew for sure. And how was I going to know for sure? At what point would I know?

  Should I just drop the protective curtain around my mind completely? Should I try to laser my way into his brain? Could I merge with this Galactic Minister and find out the truth?

  I shook my head, no. Disaster lie that way. Mentally assaulting a dual-Niner Minister was not the way forward. There was nothing else for it then. I had to just start talking and tell him the truth—though I had no idea where the truth would lead.

  As I stepped out onto the Terrace, I found Nayth waiting, very publicly. Every camera nearby had to be capturing all of this. He opened the door to his black porter.

  It was different from the porters I was used to on Shurwinn. Instead of flat rectangular straight lines, this was a sleek, black, almost bullet-shaped porter. It looked like it belonged out among the stars instead of down here on the city streets. The door opened upwards, and Nayth gestured.

  “Here goes,” I thought and slid onto the bench seat and across to the far side. Nayth followed and the door snicked closed. The porter advanced.

  Trying to keep my breath steady, I plunged in: “Nayth, thank you for meeting me for dinner. I want to tell you some things that you won’t be able to find in your recon. The true reasons I left Starlend and how I wound up relocating to Shurwinn. It started when I unwisely married someone who wasn’t good for me. That ended very poorly after only three months, before the one-year public notice. The reason it was never announced publicly is that I chose to have the details of the court proceedings redacted as far as it related to me. Officially, I divorced my ex-husband when he was convicted of attempted murder, with me as his target.”

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  Nayth stiffened. I was looking past him, over his shoulder, and I kept going.

  “Darwin is on the prison sphere Atraxis 7, and I’ll never see him again. It took me awhile to recover. I had a skull fracture, a brain bleed, and a broken arm and collarbone. I woke up in the hospital after three days in a coma, and I’ve never been the same since.”

  Now that I’d started recounting my past, I just wanted to tell him everything and get it all on the table.

  "The first thing you need to understand about me is that even though medica has cleared me— I’m 100% healthy according to recent scans and blood tests— I still struggle sometimes with relapses. That’s why I changed the way I eat. I’m better this way, but a couple of times a year, I get ill without explanation. And I need a quiet, peaceful life. I need to look after myself."

  "The big city was difficult for me. That’s why I went to Shurwinn in the beginning. Because I had too many headaches and couldn’t tolerate the loud noise of Jensen. So, I never really know when I’m going to suddenly fall ill and need a few extra days of rest to recover. My life is quite unpredictable.”

  I let out a sigh. For some reason, it felt like relief to just tell this man the truth. All of it.

  “The next thing you need to understand about me is that Shurwinn is my home, and I consider the people there my family now. They have walked with me on a very difficult journey and have supported me as their own child and sister.”

  NAYTH

  My eyes searched Dr. Nova’s face. She was not frightened. She didn’t look like a vulnerable woman asking for help. What was this?

  An ex-husband— Darwin on Atraxis 7? Rahel would find him in minutes. Puzzle pieces started clicking together as my eyes roamed across her face. Rahel could find this Darwin.

  Madrano— Madrano was better than Rahel. Madrano— had already found the Darwin on Atraxis 7.

  Madrano— not a dancer. Not a martial artist. A weapon. A man who loved Ryst like I loved Freya— she was his sister. Everything in their videos was as genuine as it had appeared, except I’d seen behind the dance to the knife that he was. He was a knife because he would protect the woman who was his sister in all but blood.

  She was not scared of Darwin on Atraxis 7. So, why was she here, telling me all her hidden secrets? The untold stories behind the cameras?

  This entire conversation was ephemera, like a dream long forgotten. I knew what I would say next, before I said it.

  “Dr. Nova—Ryst, why are you really here?”

  It came out more challenging than I’d intended, but then, it was always going to, wasn’t it? I already knew what she would say in response, and I knew how I’d reply.

  She looked me squarely in the eyes, and with conviction in her voice declared, “Four years ago I had a dream—“

  The whisper left my lips as I had always known it would. I’d whispered it months ago, hadn’t I?

  “Lovers are never separate.”

  “Ahtah!” Was it anguish or was it joy? Both? I didn’t know for she was in my arms and nothing else mattered. Finally.