Auhrnyah's Arc

Chapter 2 of 7

The night after the ships landed, Auhrnyah could not sleep. She left her people in the crystal fields and walked to the palace grown from glowing fungi and amethyst. Its towers curved like living things. She had come here to think. Instead she found Nerion already inside, alone, staring up at a spire of pale crystal. He did not hear her at first. His hand rested against the wall, and his glowing marks pulsed slow, like a tired heartbeat. He looked smaller than he had on the ramp. A man, not a prince. She wanted to trust that. She did not know if she could. One of her orbs drifted ahead of her, a small maroon shape with a purple eye and thin rings around its middle. It floated close to Nerion and studied his face. He turned and saw it, then saw her. "Your little friend does not trust me," he said. "Neither do I," Auhrnyah answered. "You shared my dreams. But you came to take my world. I need to know which one is the lie." He was quiet. Then he pressed his hand flat to the crystal spire. The marks on his skin flared bright, and the spire lit from within. An image rose inside it. Auhrnyah stepped closer and watched. She saw his world. Gray fields. Dead crystals, cracked and dark. Children lying still in rows. A sky with no color left. The image held for a long moment, then faded. Nerion pulled his hand back. His fingers shook. "That is what waits if I fail," he said. "I did not want to lie to you. But I have watched my people die. I would say anything to save the ones still breathing." The maroon orb drifted back to her shoulder. It no longer spun in warning. Auhrnyah understood then. His hunger was real. So was his grief. Both were true at once. "You could have taken the crystals by force," she said. "Your ships are above us. Why land gently? Why show me this?" "Because the dreams were real," he said. "I hoped you would help me. I still hope it." Auhrnyah looked at the glowing walls of the palace, at the man who shared her sleep and threatened her home. She made her choice. "I will not hand you my world," she said. "But I will not let your children die either. There is a third path. We find one together, or there is none." Nerion stared at her. For the first time his coals-eyes softened. "Your people will not follow you into that." "No," she said. "They will not." And she knew it was true. She had chosen a road that neither side wanted. She had made an enemy of the fear behind her and the desperation before her. But she had seen the man now, all of him. That was enough to begin.