Reborn From the Cosmos

Miniarc-Ambitious Aberrant 09

“Time’s up, love lizards.”

Little Water looked up as Lou entered the room. After confirming her human was himself, for the most part, and they were still a team, their chat had turned to less serious matters. The brood was not a community that encouraged small talk. That was a skill that she learned from Khan. They talked about each other, mostly Little Water talking about herself in an effort to soothe Khan’s distress over his hazy memory, and they talked about what they would do after they succeeded.

Khan wanted to draw a map of the world. Not the normal flat, black and white accumulation of facts and distances. He wanted to draw the world in color, to author and illustrate a compendium of every place, every notable landmark, and every climate. A functional work of art, he called it.

A dream that required him to travel the world. That’s what allowed him to make the best maps of the north; he walked the cold wasteland until he became a part of it. Knew its hidden paths better than he knew the lines on his palms or his own family.

There was nothing stopping him from walking away anytime but if he did so before he sorted the conflict between the peoples of the north, he would be an exile, an embarrassment that would never be welcomed by his family again. That and the guilt that would come from leaving his family to march to a futile future kept him chained to Victory. He hinted that he wouldn’t mind the two of them making his fantastical journey together, something he’d done many times before.

Little Water didn’t have a clear idea of what she wanted from life if she managed the impossible, but she knew it wouldn’t be the years of worry-free idling Khan envisioned. Now, her life was limited because she was worthless. If she proved herself capable, her life would still be limited, constrained by expectations.

The first thing she’d have to do was choose a mate and pass down her talents. Three clutches at minimum but it could be as much as ten if Great Mother was particularly satisfied with her. Then, she would be put to work for the brood.

Maybe she would help build a second warren in the south. Or maybe she would be charged with replicating her success with other races; create the staging grounds for the estrazi to resume their worldwide duties. Either way, she was sure it would mean parting ways with her human.

Not forever, but for long stretches of time, at the very least. Unless he was willing to submit to the estrazi, something he would never do. He might not have a stomach for war, but Khan knew his own mind. He could be stubborn. Otherwise, he would have caved to the pressures of his family long ago.

But that was something she kept to herself. It would break his heart if she told him the truth, a pointless offense if they both died. She never committed to his suggestions but letting him live in hope was a small kindness.

One he appreciated from his visible reluctance as their time came to an abrupt end. Lou didn’t care about it at all, her smile firmly in place as she exaggeratedly sniffed the air. “Huh. You two really only talked.”

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Little Water had learned from watching other humans that they got red in the face when they were feeling nervous. A blush didn’t show on Khan’s darker complexion, but it was just as easy to know when he was flustered. Her human had poor control when he was embarrassed or angry. His indignant sputtering almost made him seem guilty, as there seemed no cause for its intensity otherwise.

“What kind of man do you think I am!” he eventually shouted.

“You don’t really want me to answer that question,” the noblewoman said as she strolled further into the room. Following behind her was the little red creature, walking on its hind legs as it rolled a ball of dirt in front of it. Lou stopped in front of Khan, blocking Little Water’s view of him. “I can respect not wanting to make a move in someone else’s living room, but you don’t have the luxury of being so considerate. There’s competition waiting to swoop in given the slightest chance.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry about it. Right now…” She trailed off as the imp reached her feet. Its four scarlet eyes began to glow as the dirt it was rolling broke apart. The earth flowed through the air, bringing Khan’s wrists and ankles together hardening into restraints.

“What is this?” he asked, voice wary.

“Did you already forget, love brain? I don’t trust you. You’re less a guest than you are a chore. A potentially disastrous chore. Get used to how that feels because you’re not going to be walking around free for a while. Now, Bell’s going to take care of you for a bit while I have a conversation with Scales.”

Little Water obeyed Lou’s prompting to rise. “We will speak again,” she told her human as he watched her with reluctance.

“Yeah…”

Lou led her through the estate and out the back door, stopping once they were several strides away from the house. Little Water did her best to become one with the shadows as the noblewoman basked under the half moon, a thick tension surrounding her. She wasn’t afraid, at least not consciously, but it was hard to fight the instinct telling her to be as still and quiet as possible, so the nearby predator ignored her.

“I told you that conversation wouldn’t be private.”

“Yes,” Little Water said when the silence dragged on.

“You made an outrageous claim despite that. Don’t you dare ask me what I’m talking about.”

“You mean my suggestion that you support the alliance we’re trying to build.”

“I’ve got enough trouble without sticking my nose into that. Especially since I don’t have talent for it.” She chuckled but there was no humor in the sound. “The last time I tried to do something peaceful, I crushed a city under my huge oozey ass. Need me to destroy something? Sure, no problem. Building? Not so good at that.” She waved a hand. “Best to keep my mitts out of it.”

“The agents of the Outsider are creatures of change,” Little Water said slowly. “We associate it with chaos, but it can also mean transformation. Transformation into something greater. The two don’t need to be separate. Sometimes, before something can be changed, it has to be destroyed. Reduced to make space for something new.”

“Good pep talk. Still not interested.”

“The estrazi can make it worth your interest.”

“More than my benefactor? I think of him as a second father, you know. That makes your prisoner a kind of sister to me.”

Little Water fought the urge to hiss. “You would free the Defiler?”

“Saints, no. Not in a hurry to let the dragon that broke the world free…but not in a hurry doesn’t mean never. She was chosen like me. In a way, she’s family. I don’t have so much of that I’m willing to turn a blind eye to one. At the very least, she deserves to tell her side. And even if she didn’t, I want to hear it. Don’t think that’s going to go over well with your people.”

“It will be fine. Many of my sisters have listened to the Defiler and their faith wasn’t shaken.”

“Ugh. Saints save me from fanatics.”

“The estrazi can open the world to you,” Little Water pressed. “We have accounts of every intelligent race in the world and treasures from every continent.”

Lou scoffed. “And I have the means to obtain treasures from a thousand worlds. You’re going to have to do better than that.” Little Water opened her mouth to continue convincing her, but the noblewoman cut her off. “Take some time. You’ve got till winter to figure it out. In the meantime, you’ve got more pressing problems. Particularly, what are you going to do in the next few weeks?

“I assume you’re going to keep close as long as we have Khan so you better figure something out. The city’s too busy to worry about a bunch of strange figures in hood but it won’t be like that in other places. You need to decide how you’re going to handle revealing yourself to the rest of Harvest. Or, if you aren’t ready, figure out how to hide a lot better.”

“Then we are welcome?”

“Sure, why not? Trying to head off the problems doesn’t seem to work. Might as well keep them close where I can keep an eye on them.”