“These… These fish-eaters. Why do they hate Hadone so much?”
I’d been wondering this ever since the altercation in the cavern. I wondered if Hadone kept a women somewhere that he stole from them. If that was true, then his heart would be split between her and I. It’s not fair for me to think this way when I want all three Aurelians, but somehow I still feel a deep gouge of jealousy despite it being completely unfair to demand loyalty from one man, when he must share me among three.
Darok sighs deeply. I brace myself for the worst. It seems insane for me to be thinking about jealousy when Hadone might be dead by the end of the day, but I still need to know if his heart is torn between me and some other, unknown woman.
“It is Ton that hates Hadone. He is the reason that we had to leave our jungle home, forty years ago.”
Forty years.
It hits me hard when he says the number. I knew that Aurelians lived longer that humans, but realizing that he is so much older than me is surreal.
“How… How old are you?”
Darok smiles sadly. There’s a hint of tragedy in every word he says, and I hate the feeling that I’m getting to know a man preparing for death.
“I have 240 years of age. And you?”
“22. By the Gods, I never really thought about it. When I’m old and grey, you’ll still be in your prime.”
Darok snorts. “You really don’t know?”
“Know what?” I ask, feeling completely off-balance.
“We mated last night, my sweet. That means we’re mated for eternity. When our seed touches you, it changes you to the core. You’ll now live thousands of years, my sweet.”
Thousands of years? It can’t be true!
“I… No, it’s not possible. I know that Aurelians can only mate with humans if they are Bonded… But…”
I shake my head.
“It’s the Bond that increases the lifespan of a human?”
Darok looks at me with incredulous eyes, and then nods. “I’m sorry. Why do I assume you’d know any of this? We’re an unknown entity to you.” He shrugs. “I, too, have heard of this Bond. But this is not the way of the Scorp-Blood tribe. We earn our tattoos in combat and the venom of the Scorp flows through our veins. This allows us to mate with a human woman – any human woman. It is not the Bond which increases the lifetime of a human, it is our fertile seed. The Bond is one way to become fertile, and the Scorp Blood is another”
“No… It can’t be true.”
His words hit me like a slap. I’ve never felt such bizarre hope and despair at the same time. I always knew that I would be lucky to get eighty years of life in this world, most of it spent eking out an existence on Barl.
Now time stretches differently. I will live for thousands of years. Instead of being a quarter done already, my time in this existence is now practically limitless. I have barely scratched the surface of what I could achieve.
And if the three Aurelians do not survive? Do I instead have the prospect of spending thousands of years alone? Knowing that they once existed, but now are gone? Time stretches out in front of me in a way I’d never imagined before. It’s like I’m standing on a cliff and suddenly the ground beneath me was taken away.
Tears spring to my eyes. It’s a perfect torment – a tragedy that burns me.
“Could you beat the other triad?” I ask, my voice shaking.
Darok looks away from me. “Hadone did nothing wrong. Ton, one of the fish-eaters, had a woman that he earned. But you cannot keep a woman that does not love you. Our Orb-God will create a portal for her to leave should she choose. She loved Hadone, but he felt nothing for her; so she left. Ton believed that Hadone was the reason for her departure, but in truth, she’d learned to hate him. She would have left anyway.”
I’d initially thought the tribe was violent – that they’d kidnap women and hold them by force. Apparently, the tribe would respect their wishes if the women later chose to leave – but if the other ‘fated mates’ were anything like me, it wasn’t as easy for them to leave as catching a bus or train had been back in Barl.
Only a portal could return the women back to their home worlds – and apparently the Orb-God would open one if the women so desired.
But if that was true, it couldn’t have been random – it was as if the Orbs could think and respond to the desire of their users. That seemed so crazy. Orbs are the basis for interstellar travel and many of the technological advancements more civilized societies like the Aurelian Empire rely on. It is a chilling thought to think that the technology we have considered as ‘just’ a power source might actually be sentient.
But I’d seen the way the Orb in Tenderfoot’s basement had shimmered and pulsated – the way when I’d stared into it, the Orb had seemed to stare back into me in return.
The dagger in my belt with the shard of orb in the hilt – was that sentient too? It had certainly felt that way, when I’d fired the weapon up and threatened the Viceroy with it. The blade had almost craved his blood.
Do the great Orb-Spheres like the one in Tenderfoot’s basement have thoughts, just like me? How many billions of years have the Orbs been been in existence? What kind of a mind does an Orb-God like the ones the Scorp-Blood tribe worship have?
It’s a strange thought, for a strange culture. The
