A New Home

Kit stared out across the cavern, knees tucked up to her chin, twirling a rose in front of her face. It was fading. It had been plucked weeks ago, in another nation, given to her by a man she’d not allowed herself a second thought about. Until now.

Until the night before she might have to give up everything to save this world…and all she wanted was to be in his arms.

I’m sorry, he’d said, tears in his lilac eyes. I never meant to hurt you. I never wanted to keep this a secret from you.

She hadn’t even looked at him. Hadn’t said a word. Just turned and walked away, leaving Liara to draw the conversation back to the trial. The trial where he and his sister had been on trial for murder. The trial that Liara had impulsively signed herself and Kit up for, as the siblings’ representatives. To defend them.

They hadn’t committed the murder…but they had been revealed as operatives in the criminal organization that had been hunting Kit and Liara for the last five years.

I understand why you’re upset,” Liara had said. Kit had clenched her jaw and stared out across the ocean. “But…this branch seems different. They really are focused on saving their nation.”

“And then what? After their home is saved? What will they do after that?” Kit had demanded. “They all receive their orders from Yuria. And her orders are always the same.”

But now…

Thraine was a member of the same criminal organization. Thraine had written to Yuri and asked permission to forsake his quest and throw away his life in service of a nation that was not his own; but a nation in peril nonetheless.

Yuri had given him permission.

“Who are you thinking of, with so much regret in your eyes?” Thraine’s voice sounded behind her. “He’s a lucky man. Would you like to write to him?”

Kit wiped her eyes. “It’s too late for any of that now. We can’t spare anyone to carry a message.”

“I have my ways. Particularly among members of the Marfui.”

Kit stared at him. He smiled. “I understand what your impression of us must be. I’ve heard what the other Generals have done to you through the years. For that…I am sorry. All I can say is that they were operating on their own whims…their own prejudices,” he corrected himself, clearing his throat, “when they attacked you. Their orders were…for something different.”

“I know what their orders were for.” Kit said coldly. “I do not believe in destabilizing the nations of this world for personal gain.”

“We…” he sighed. “We are trying to save this world. I am sorry…I cannot say more. If you have someone you care for, tonight is the night to reach out to him. I do not believe your heart to be so easily led astray for him to be like the other Generals.”

Kit hesitated. “If…if I survive tonight, though…”

“Then perhaps…you will have found a family in this world.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, not necessarily surprised he knew she was an alien here.

“And perhaps…he will not like the story I have to tell.”

“That is his decision to make, not yours.” Thraine reminded her. “At least give him one opportunity to make the right one.”

Kit stared out in silence at the horizon for a long time. She heard Thraine get up, felt his hand tap her shoulder in a gesture of…companionship, maybe. With a start, she realized she’d been staring at the horizon in the direction of the person she’d been thinking of. She sighed, pulling out a few sheets of paper and a pen, and began to write. First in her native language, and then she began the difficult translation to his. She blew on the final lines of ink as the sun’s rays tipped over the edge of the horizon, falling onto her letter, clumsily written, but with love. Thraine’s heavy footsteps sounded behind her.

“Is it ready?”

Kit folded the papers and tucked them into an envelope, pressing her lips to it for a moment before handing it to him. “I hope this is the right thing to do.”