Anyway, she remarked when she arrived, she was here now, and they could get on with it. She was a decisive sort - the type of person that everyone listens to when they say something. I think I’m like that a little bit, so we were two like minds.
Ti put the seal of approval on the son’s funeral funding plan, and that seemed to be enough for the whole family to commit - except for one of the uncles, who studied her with wary eyes. He was weird, though, so nobody paid him much attention.
Once Ti had put to bed any remaining loose ends, she made some time to speak with me. Lo, Ti and I sat the father’s study, and Ti began to explain…
She didn’t know exactly what her father’s life’s work was all about - he really did keep it that hush-hush. But, being only a young child at the time, she had allowed herself to eavesdrop a little. She remembered her father talking to another man about this work, almost as though the other man was in charge. Ti didn’t recognise the man at first, but soon became used to him slipping in and out in the night. Once, even, he showed up during the day, and Ti and Lo were allowed to speak with him.
This was where Lo spoke up. This strange man, he was sure, was Ira Raynor, my father. I showed Ti a picture of him, and, although she wasn’t completely sure about it, she seemed to agree.
Now that I had confirmation, I pushed Ti on it further. I could taste how close I was to finding him already - and it had only been a few days!
But Ti grew quiet, afraid, and did not like the idea of saying more aloud. Both Lo and I encouraged her to share what she knew, and, eventually, she did give in.
There was one thing she’d overheard my father and her’s discuss: telepathy.
Hearing this, all the memories I’d repressed flooded back: the way he’d been able to control me, to control Syl, even.
Of course, none of it was ever done out of malice, or ever intended to cause harm. It was all to protect us. It was to keep us away from potential partners he thought might hurt us. Or it was to keep us inside when the climate was dangerous. Whatever it might have been on that particular occasion, the protection of his daughters was at the heart of it.
But while he thought he was keeping us from harm, we were damaged in a wholly different way. That internal way, that damage to the heart, that might make a mother take ‘Liks to forget, or might make a daughter turn to alcohol to suppress her own memories.
At that moment I knew that I needed to own the dead man’s work - to understand what its value was to my father.
Although it wasn’t quite enough, Ti allowed me to purchase the documents with the contents of my savings. I worried that they’d struggle to send their father off properly if I didn’t pay the full amount, but the siblings simply smiled at me. They’d find a way, they told me; Gulians always do.
16
The Truth Is In Here
‘Leave,’ Te’rnu’s voice announced from the other side of the cell door. There was a strength in his voice, a determination that I’d never heard from him before.
Come to save my life yet again, you brilliant Arellian!
And then my heart dropped. I realised that - once he broke us free - I would be the one who would have to tell him the truth. A knot formed in my stomach as I imagined breaking the news to him.
‘But-,’ the guard started.
‘Leave. Now.’
‘Yes, sir.’
The guard stood to attention so hard that I could hear their foot collide with the floor from the next room.
There was a whoosh as the outer door opened, the guard leaving Te’rnu alone in the room.
It was our door, next, that opened.
‘I… Mel told me the truth,’ I told Te’rnu. ‘I know what the Iyr have been hiding. It’s… big. I don’t really know how to…’
The Arellian remained silent, the mechanic red eyes of the suit bearing into me.
‘Do you know already?’ I asked.
Te’rnu nodded.
‘How? Did you get to the mainframe?’
‘I was roped into a meeting.’
‘Been there,’ I muttered, meaning this throwaway comment to lighten the mood - but my heart wasn’t in it.
‘We should move. I think one of them is suspicious of me. I know not how much time we have. And there are thoughts of…’
He turned to Mel.
‘There are thoughts of killing you.’
Mel gulped. ‘Well, I’m keen to get a move on! Shall we go? Let’s go. Which way? Left?’
‘I know the way,’ I told her. ‘Follow me.’
We stormed out of the cellblock, Mel and I in front, and Te’rnu holding up the rear, so as to maintain our prisoner-guard dynamic. As we left the room, we turned right… straight into an Iyr.
This Iyr remained quiet for a moment - and looked Mel and I up and down. Their helmet, half the usual dark grey and half green, glistened in the Central Command’s neon lighting.
‘You,’ the strange Iyr commented when they saw Te’rnu. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Prisoner transfer,’ Te’rnu replied, this strange strength still underlining the tone of his voice. Whatever had happened in the past half hour had changed something inside of him. ‘We are taking them to a more secure location.’
‘We?’ the Iyr asked. ‘It looks as though there is only… one of you. This is, perhaps, not enough for two prisoners, would you not say?’
‘Maybe if it were anyone else, Ve’nua,’ Te’rnu responded, and I noted that he was calling them by name - this wasn’t their first run-in.
They went
