Diana Pooler looks at the tattooed Aurelians with wonder. I get a surge of jealousy. I’ll never be as elegant as her. I’ll always be a simple mechanic from a chop shop in Barl – never a noblewoman like her, even if I’m dressed and beautified like one right now.
What if she’s their mate, not me? What if these three gorgeous aliens came for her?
I gulp dryly, irritated by the knot of jealousy tightening in my belly.
Why should I even care? I barely know these three. It’s been just days since I met them…
Oblivious to my conflicted thoughts, Diana demands:
“If they’re so primitive, they’d have no means of interstellar travel. How are they even here?”
The old nobleman clears his throat. “You’d be wise not to underestimate those different than you, Miss Pooler. Did the elders teach you nothing?”
Diana looks chastised – and though I hate to admit it, I feel a surge of satisfaction seeing this haughty young noblewoman taken down a peg.
Lord Tenderfoot smiles welcomingly to us. “Come, come down to my study. Let me show you something…”
He looks almost gleeful, like a kid wanting to show us a brand-new toy. I glance over at Tod, Tyler and Stacy.
I’ve already lost Runner to the Viceroy, through the hatred the child learned from his father. I don’t know whether to trust this Lord Tenderfoot – or whatever ‘surprise’ he has lurking in his basement study.
Seeing my look of concern, Darok steps forward, looming protectively over the children. I feel instant relief. With his movements, Darok demonstrates that he’ll keep the orphans safe.
The old Lord Tenderfoot takes us to a dusty doorway, with stairs leading downwards beyond the creaking frame.
Forn steps in front of me and follows Tenderfoot down the stairs. Diana and the two other Aurelians wait for me to go next, and the children to follow me. Finally, they bring up the rear and we all file downwards as a unit.
A strange darkness fills me with dread as we descend. Lights come on automatically as we walk down these ancient, stone steps. It feels like I’m entering a new world. I step closer to Forn, and I feel Diana shuffling in next to me. She might have the demeanor of a noblewoman, but whatever is down there has clearly shaken her composure.
“I’m scared,” whispers Tod.
“It’s okay,” I murmur back. We reach the bottom of the stairs and step into Lord Tenderfoot’s study.
Dust tickles my nose. Even more books are strewn about, and the lights seem to stop before they reach each corner of the room; making it look almost endless.
The three Aurelians move as one, striding forward and bowing to the huge thing that floats in the air in the center of the room.
I gasp as I see it. It’s a huge, pulsating, blue-black circle of darkness. It’s a glowing ball of deeper than black nothingness, and the longer I look at it, the more I feel like I’m going to be sucked right inside it.
It’s an Orb – an entire Orb-Sphere. I’ve seen Orb-Shards used to power machinery and weapons – like Forn’s daggers – but I’ve only read about how the Orb-Material appears in its natural state; as a huge, perfect sphere.
And even then, I’ve never read about an Orb-Sphere as big as this – reaching almost floor-to-ceiling, and dwarfing even the towering Aurelians.
But more impressive than its size is its presence.
The sphere seems… alive. It glows, and pulsates, and even as I look at it, I feel like it’s looking right back at me.
“Don’t look at it,” I whisper to the orphans, and with a whimper they glance away.
Ironically, I can’t even follow my own instructions. I can’t take my eyes off the huge Orb. An Orb-Sphere the size of my head could power a ship through space for eternity. This one is infinitely larger, and it spits and hisses with crackling, otherworldly electricity.
“As you see,” states Lord Tenderfoot, looking at the Aurelians who bow their heads to the powerful being in front of us, “this tribal society revere the Orbs as Gods. This is the method they use to travel through space and even time to find their fated mates.”
Fated mates.
The words echo in my mind, and I look with longing at the huge, powerful Aurelians. I’ve always taken care of myself, and I was damn good at it. But I never truly felt safe. When I’m with these three – Forn, Hadone and Darok – I somehow know that they would die for me.
“Could the Orb get us back to their planet?” I ask, piecing together the puzzle.
Lord Tenderfoot nods, then goes to a bookshelf while speaking in the language of the Aurelians. Hadone and Darok speak back quickly, and I can tell they’re glad to finally be speaking to someone who understands them.
At the same time, I hate being left out of the conversation.
As if sensing that, Tenderfoot switches to the common tongue as he mutters: “Yes, yes – I’ve already paid the price of travel.”
The old man grabs a large book from the shelf behind him and blows dust from it. He sets the ancient tome on the table.
Paid the price of travel? Do I… Do I even want to know what that means?
The old scholar opens the book. He bristles with passion.
“There are many tribal Aurelian societies, though the Aurelian Empire denies their existence – or simply lost contact with them for so long that they’ve faded to distant memory and the stuff of legend. Ice Aurelians, for example, from a glacier planet. Fishing Aurelians from a planet made of ninety-percent water; although I have no reputable sources for these planet’s existence except for an account from a mercenary three thousand years ago. The most well-documented of the tribes are the jungle Aurelians. I believe these three warriors belong to that tribe.”
He opens the book to a page with an illustration of a fierce Aurelian warrior on the paper. The picture shows the instantly-recognizable physique of
