Myles freezes, noticing the look on Irva's face, his neck tenses and his eyebrow twitches. He crushes the heart unceremoniously and immediately incinerates it.
He turns to Sebbeh again and kneels, "Sit."
His voice isn't commanding, but it is not timid or small either.
Sebbeh complies as his chest slowly weaves itself back together, flesh stitching over exposed muscle in uneven pulses. "What is it?"
"I challenged you so you would acknowledge me." Myles smirks, fighting the urge to offend. "It was beyond my imagination to think that I would have ever had the chance of winning."
Sebbeh raises an eyebrow and lets out a sharp huff of air from his nose. "Speak clearly, young warrior."
"No, it matters not." Myles sighs. "What matters to me is Lady Irva."
Sebbeh's brows furrow deeply. What does this boy think he is asking? Does he want his wife's hand?
Myles clears his throat. "In the small time we have come to know each other, she has become of great importance to me." He pauses to think for a moment. "Something like an older sister."
"Boy…" Sebbeh warns.
Myles stares directly into Sebbeh's eyes, matching his energy without hesitation. "Look at her," he growls.
Sebbeh slowly raises his gaze toward Irva.
Her eyes were glossy.
Subtle.
Painfully subtle.
The sort of thing anyone lacking intimacy with her would have missed entirely. Yet somehow, this boy had seen it. Seen through her composure, through the quiet smiles and calm words she wore like armor.
Sebbeh's gaze slowly drifts back to Myles.
This time there is rage in it.
Confusion.
And shame.
"Boy," Sebbeh warns again, though the weight behind the word had changed.
Myles rises to his feet and turns to walk away.
But before he can take more than a step, the towering blue figure moves in front of him, blocking his path entirely.
"We are not done here."
"I am."
Myles' arm drives into Sebbeh's gut.
The impact folds the giant down to one knee, the floor beneath him cracking under the force. Before Sebbeh can retaliate, Irva grabs his wrist.
Instantly.
Almost impossibly fast.
Like instinct had moved her body before thought could.
Sebbeh turns toward her, pain twisting his expression alongside confusion and simmering anger.
Irva says nothing.
She only gestures toward Myles.
Toward his eyes.
They glowed.
Not brightly.
Not wildly.
But wrong.
Like something deep beneath his skin had opened one eye and was quietly staring back at the world.
Myles didn't know it yet, but whatever was within him was becoming more comfortable revealing itself. That truth terrified Irva and deeply worried Rai.
Kaelen, however, looked intrigued.
Curious.
As though she were watching the outline of a storm appear beyond the horizon.
Still, one thought united all of them:
Keep Myles in control of his own body.
Inside Sebbeh's chamber, the atmosphere was heavy enough to suffocate.
Kaelen, Rai, and Irva sat across from him, explaining their findings on the boy and why they had allowed the fight to happen in the first place.
"So I was some kind of quirble to you?" Sebbeh asks bitterly.
A quirble was a creature used for study, something capable of being modified or guided into developing the traits of any plant, beast, or lifeform that walked, once walked, or would ever walk the universe.
"They are very useful," Kaelen interjects calmly, "but not in this case." She crosses her legs like a child before continuing. "The truth is, even if we stopped him, he would have done it anyway."
Then her voice grows quieter.
Smaller.
"At least this way… we knew you wouldn't die."
Sebbeh huffs sharply. "What?"
Rai raises a hand immediately, silencing the room before emotion could derail it.
"Stop." Her eyes narrow. "Your species may be strong and blessed with eternal life, but you are not us." Her voice hardens. "Wounds can still kill you."
Her gaze pierces straight through him.
"As you witnessed, that boy was very capable of doing exactly that."
Then she glances toward Kaelen with visible disdain.
"The true purpose was to make you understand that." Rai folds her arms. "And the boy had a good point."
Sebbeh lowers his gaze slowly.
The shame settles heavily onto his shoulders.
"It was not my intention to cause you pain."
His head tilts slightly toward Irva.
For the first time in a long while, the mighty warrior looked small.
"Do know this, now that you have learnt your mistake, we intend to punish you~" her lascivious gaze falls on him, lingering deliberately.
His cheek turns purple almost immediately.
Irva smiles shyly from the side, trying to hide it, while Kaelen looks visibly disgusted, her expression souring as she watches the exchange unfold.
Over in Myles' room, he lies quietly on his bed thinking about what happened earlier. His eyes remain fixed on the ceiling, his thoughts circling the same problem again and again.
He had thought he had finally achieved at least enough control over his Criole to prevent overexertion. After everything he had been doing lately, all the concentration and effort, he genuinely believed he was improving.
To his dismay, though, it happened again.
His expression tightens faintly.
The last thing he remembered was telling Sebbeh to look at Irva.
After that, he didn't remember much.
Frustration takes over, he jumps out of his bed and heads for a training room again. In a corridor on his way, he thinks about Lia, he wonders if she is doing ok and if she misses him at all. He stares at his palm with determination; he will become someone strong enough to be by her side. An image of Terrene flashes in his head. Myles is confused. He ignores the thought and continues walking when a hand grabs him, startling him.
"Whoa, it's just me," Daena announces herself to the jumpy Myles. "Are you ok?"
"Yes, I am fine." He looks her up and down. "What are you wearing?"
"Oh, this?" She tugs on the fabric of her odd-looking dress, well, at least odd to Myles, "One of Sebbeh's umm, do I call them servants? Well, yeah, she hooked me up."
"Whatever makes you comfortable, I guess." Myles shrugs, ready to walk away.
Daena pulls on his shirt. He turns back to look at her. "Oh, right, did you want something?"
Daena looks down, still holding on to his shirt, "Can I tag along?"
Are we being for real? Myles thinks to himself. "Sure, why not?"
The two arrive in the training room, linking arms; Daena's idea.
They come to meet a manically laughing Clav, playing with the strongest guards available to them; they were no joke, they managed to wound Clav on their arms and abdomen. This time, Clav is in her femme form. According to her or them or whatever they are, she is more agile in this form, and it feels right. Whatever that means.
The guards may have been able to wound her, but she hasn't used any criole yet, Myles smirks. "Hey, Clav, want a real fight?"
Her eye flashes green, and suddenly, the men fall unconscious on the floor.
Myles gently pulls his arm from Daena's embrace and takes his shirt off. Daena smiles; her head is in the clouds.
Over in Sebbeh's room a few days later, the throuple, still in robes, work with Kaelen to find a solution to their three problems. The spire weapons, Allyser's wrath; granted, that is entirely Sebbeh's problem, but Rai would like to keep her husband alive. Finally and most importantly, Myles' alternate persona, all they know is that he is dangerous—very, and can most definitely kill Sebbeh and probably cause problems where they were going.
According to Sebbeh's ship's captain, they were expecting to arrive in 2 weeks or less; further delay would not be tolerated by Sebbeh's father.
"Why did he have to jump after me on the ship??"
Rai gives him a sharp look, "Did you forget what you did to my little sister?" Rai cracks her neck. "Compared to us, they are babies; our logic does not apply to them. If his alter ego truly was his berserk state, you would be dead." She walks toward him. "You know what I would have done if that happened."
A cold sweat runs down Sebbeh's neck, his mind drifts off to imagining a grieving Rai ending lineages and his dad last to watch everything he has built burn so he can experience her loss. Finally, erasing her body and all traces of her rampage in an artificial form of 50 superstars.
"Yeah, I see your point," he lets out in a shaky voice, clearing his throat.
Kaelen, with a huge 'oh stars you told him' smiling look on her face, looks at the two and laughs. "No way??!" she gasps. "That long ago?"
Irva is confused and feeling left out, and asks Kaelen what she is talking about. Rai holds her head as if having a headache and turns away in embarrassment and frustration, and summons a holographic screen.
Kaelen smiles at the expectant Irva, "You see, your hubs and my sis over there go way back, like when she was still just a mill," she laughs, "I wasn't around then, obviously, but another one of our sisters was, and she told me all about it."
"You see, these two had a Romeo and Juliet type of thing going on, you know, meeting in secret and all...." Kaelen goes on to describe the exact image Sebbeh saw in his head with a little extra.
Irva laughs, "No way, you promised him that?"
Rai looks at the two seriously.
"Still????!!!" the two say in unison, utterly shocked.
"Focus, girls." Rai turns back to the two, regretting not telporying Kaelen back the moment she felt her presence on the ship.
"Honestly, after all those years, I can't believe neither of the two of you told me," Irva says to Sebbeh and Rai, disappointed, completely ignoring Rai's concerns.
Sebbeh turns away, "Well, it's not something you wanna talk about, you know."
Irva sighs.
"Sebbeh! You mentioned your brothers possess two of them, correct?" Rai says, annoyed.
"What? Oh, yes." his face turns grim. "July and September."
"That's not good." Irva looks at Rai worriedly.
"Why, what's up?" Kaelen asks.
Rai sighs, "Well, simply put, if I am hit with those two, I die."