Wordlessly, they accompany me in a shuttle to the Arena of the Gods.
I’ve seen this place in the holo-vids. It’s a Colosseum, just like they had in the Ancient Rome of Old-Earth. Everything about this city – this planet – reminds me of what I’ve seen of the culture of Romans and Greeks.
The two Elites who escort me are huge and hulking in their Orb-Armor. I fidget with the Orb-Ring around my finger, and one of them turns his slate-grey eyes to watch me.
More so than even Daccia, the Elite betrays nothing. His face and eyes might have been carved from marble for all the emotion they reveal.
I wonder if I pull off the ring whether they’ll stay true to what the doctor had told me – that I wouldn’t be allowed to view the trial.
I know these Aurelians think such measures are for my own protection, but I hate all this. I don’t need protection from the Aurelian Empire – not from the three devoted, beloved warriors who I’m Bonded to.
What I need is my triad. I need them to know it wasn’t me who disrupted the Orb-Drive. I need them to know I’m ready to give them everything they wanted from me.
"This way," one of the Elite guards finally breaks his silence, speaking in a dark, forbidding voice. We’ve touched down in front of a huge entrance. I follow the Elites – my dishonor guard, I suppose you could call them – into the coliseum. We pass through looming stone hallways until we finally reach a towering set of gates that open to the arena beyond.
I gasp as soon as I see them.
My triad are there, in the middle of the arena – on their knees in the rough sand, with their hands cuffed behind their backs. They can’t sense me through the Bond, but the thousands of Aurelians watching this spectacle gasp as one and turn their countless heads as I step through the gates.
My triad struggle to turn their heads so they can see me.
I see the betrayal in their eyes.
I can’t help myself. What have I got to lose?
I wrench the Orb-Ring off my finger, hurling it to the sand. Before they can stop me, I run past the Elite guards, out into the sand of the area. I run to them – my triad. My loves.
I don’t get far. Within seconds, one of the Elite guards grabs me by my collar, yanking me back through the gates.
“No! You will not interrupt.”
But without the ring on my finger, the auras of my triad suddenly flood back into my mind.
It’s like coming home, having them back in there…
…but coming home to find your house ransacked and robbed.
From their auras, I can sense that Hadrian and Kitos are wounded. Not physically, but deeply in their soul. Daccia’s aura has that characteristic calm to it – as if he’d been expecting me to betray him all along, and now he’s just accepted the inevitable.
“I’m so sorry,” I telepath desperately. “I didn’t disable the Orb-Drive this time. It was my sister! You have to believe me! I don’t want to hurt you!”
Relief suddenly floods through the auras of Hadrian and Kitos – followed quickly by an overwhelming sense of grief.
They already knew they were going to die in this sandy arena – where countless Aurelians have killed, died, and been judged for millennia.
They’d been facing death with resignation – thinking that with my betrayal, they’d had nothing left to live for, anyway.
Now, having communicated to them what really happened – by reaching out to them and letting them know that I cared for them as deeply as they cared for me…
Suddenly, I’ve given purpose to their lives…
…just moments before those lives are taken away from them.
I’ve given them the poison of hope.
Only Daccia’s aura lights up with light.
“One moment more, feeling your aura, is all I needed,” telepaths Daccia, and I feel his presence in my mind, massaging my being, feeling my deepest thoughts.
I look up at the place of honor. There sits Queen Jasmine, surrounded by her Emperor and his own triad. They’re looking down at us imperiously. Behind Jasmine are her sons. They range from young adults to Aurelian babes barely out of infancy – and yet they all stand like a silent army.
I count at least twenty. Jasmine has given birth to twenty strong, proud sons.
With a sob, I realize that could have been my life – if I hadn’t so foolishly run from my triad.
Jasmine looks down at my triad. She raises her hand up, and the crowd falls quiet.
“These men,” the Queen announces, “have been brought to us having committed the most heinous of crimes. Decorated officers of the Aurelian Law Enforcement, they betrayed their duty and fornicated with a woman in their custody. This is crime punishable by death.”
The crowd gasps.
“The proof? It’s in their eyes. These warriors are Bonded to this woman.”
The crowd mutters and jeers. One Elite stands.
“Bonded? The we cannot execute them! Have you gone mad, Queen Jasmine? We must think of our race before anything else! The Aurelian race is dying out! The Bond is all we have!”
Queen Jasmine waits for the crowd to quiet. “You are correct.”
As angry, panicked and frantic as I am, I take a second to admire her diplomacy. Jasmine has the authority to stand that man down…
…and yet she spoke to him with respect, and acknowledged his words.
The Queen continues:
“This is indeed a unique case, and as such I will judge it uniquely. Every Aurelian in this crowd would have done the same if they’d known their prisoner was their Fated Mate.”
There are rumbles and grumbles in the crowd, but I see that people are nodding their heads slowly. The poison of hope wells up inside of me.
“These three men took advantage of a woman,” Jasmine speaks loudly. “For that crime, they are hereby expelled from the ranks of Aurelian Law Enforcement. They are hereby
