Tenderfoot turns the page, and overleaf there’s another illustration showing a world that looks like Old Earth, covered in verdant greenery.
“The author of this book wrote extensively on the tribal Aurelians over six-hundred-years ago. She provided no galactic coordinates, though – only an image to illustrate what Orb travel is like. Just yesterday, I attempted to create a portal myself. I… I paid the required price – but I didn’t want to go through the portal; simply look through it.”
The old man shrugs.
“However, I’d thought I must have done something wrong – because no portal opened in my study.”
But he hadn’t done it wrong. He had opened a portal – just not in his study!
So, this old man is the reason the portal opened. He must have accidentally opened it over Barl.
“Could the portal have opened in Barl?” I looked expectantly at him. “Is that how they came here?”
Lord Tenderfoot nods slowly. “Yes, it’s possible. I’d been thinking of my niece that morning. She… She was doing outreach in Barl.”
As he speaks, grief chokes the old man’s his voice. I realize he too lost a loved one in the firebombing of my home city.
The pieces are all coming together. I ask:
“So, you opened a portal – and these three Aurelians came through it?”
A pang goes through my heart.
They didn’t come here for me.
When Tenderfoot first talked of fated mates and voyages through portals, I’d actually resented the idea that these Aurelians might think they could simply snatch me up and take me back home with them; forcing me to throw away everything about my old life in exchange for something mysterious and new.
Yet, now that I know Forn, Hadone and Darok didn’t come here for me, I feel a sense of loss for something I didn’t even know I wanted.
So, the Aurelians passed through this portal by chance – which means I’m not their fated mate. Dammit, Diana Pooler has just as much of a chance to be their destined lover as I do!
I blink back tears, embarrassed about how strongly I feel about this.
Why do I even care? I never wanted this!
As if they can read my mind, the three Aurelians turn away from their trance-like reverence of the Orb-Sphere and gaze at me instead.
I love the way they stare at me – as if I’m the only thing that exists. They stare at me with the same reverence as that glowing ball of darkness; like they’re constantly astonished I even exist.
Gods, I can’t believe it – I’d been complaining about them taking me back with them, and now I’m mourning it.
Would it be wrong… Would it be wrong to wish they didn’t realize I’m not the woman they came here for?
If they find out the portal that brought them to me opened because of an old man’s meddling – not to lead them to their fated mate – I know they won’t look at me like this anymore.
I sigh and try to burn the memory of the three Aurelians and their longing gaze into my memory. In a moment they’d learn the truth, and then I’d lose this image; and spend the rest of my life longing for it again.
Lord Tenderfoot smiles. “To go back, I’ll simply open the portal for you. I’ve studied the texts – I know that I can do it.”
The old man laughs bitterly.
“I nearly bankrupted my family estate with the financial burden of purchasing such a huge Orb. Perhaps I’m obsessed with the alien cultures, but you will forgive an old man for his obsession. So many in the Capital are filled with blind hatred. It’s refreshing to learn the truth; even if nobody else would believe it.”
He could open the portal again and return these three warriors to their home.
I feel my stomach broil.
Gods – I don’t want them to leave me!
Tenderfoot is oblivious to my turmoil.
“From my research,” he strokes his long, white beard, “I believe the ‘price’ I paid will give travel both ways – from the homeworld of these Aurelians, and back to it.”
The ‘price’ he paid.
I swallow hard and make up my mind that I don’t want to know the price he’s talking about. The Lord Tenderfoot might seem harmless, but I see an almost crazed look of obsessive need in his eyes, whenever he glances over at the Orb-Sphere that dominates this room.
Diana looks like she’s about to faint. I feel a tinge of shame as she slumps down on one of the many chairs. She was locked up in a dungeon for Gods-know-how-long, then rescued by a species she’d been raised to fear and hate, and now she’s forced to question everything she’d thought she knew in the presence of the same fearsome Orb-Sphere as me.
I look to the glowing, blue-black ball of otherworldly mystery, and I realize how the almost imperceptible vibration of it cuts through you like a knife. There’s no other way to think in this thing’s presence – except with brutal honesty.
Lord Tenderfoot noticed Diana’s reaction and gives her a long gaze of sadness. “Lady Pooler… The Viceroy took you into custody to use you as political leverage against your father. He now has witnesses that you escaped with the help of Aurelians. The people will believe that you are working with the Aurelians, and the Viceroy will whip them up into a frenzy against you and your family. You have no future here. You have to leave.”
I see the first hint of tears in her eyes, but she juts up her chin. “No. No! That’s crazy. My father has many powerful friends.”
Tenderfoot shakes his head. “Not after what happened today. Anyone who aids you will be branded by the same poisonous rumors as you will be. If you leave, then your father can argue that the Aurelians kidnapped you while you were in Lord Aeron’s custody. With the
