The Shell and the Star - Part 23

This is the second excerpt for this week (making up for skipping last week) of my aquatic SFR being offered here as a free read. 

If you're just tuning in this week, you can scroll down below this post to read yesterday's many faceted portion or, if you're just tuning in for the first time, to see the link to read everything posted to date on a separate page.

For those who read yesterday's jarring episode and are jumping back to catch today's excerpt...things are about to go from worse to really worse. 

CHAPTER EIGHT

"What have you done?” Her father’s anguish cut straight to Jinn’s heart. It was the same question she’d demanded of herself a hundred times since she’d left on the transport from Perling to Talstar. Home didn’t bring the comfort she craved, only an emptiness that wouldn’t be soothed. She’d only meant to ask Trey for more time, not understanding that her precise words in his culture were uttered to reject a bid. To reject the bidder.

She shouldn’t have wavered. She should never have doubted. She’d been too weak to find the courage within her to embrace the future he offered.

“I only meant to ask for time. I didn’t understand the meaning in my words,” Jinn cried. She couldn’t forget the look of pain in Trey’s eyes at the wound she’d inflicted. She felt the stab of guilt like a knife to her heart each time she relived that moment in her mind. Doubt was a monster more vicious even than the tentacled beast who’d tried to destroy Trey. She’d only finished what the Razortooth couldn’t.

“Why didn’t you counsel me? Why didn’t you warn me not to speak those words?”

He fixed her with a glare, his jaw muscles flexing. “I didn’t know, Jinn. Even I was not privy to the Perling bonding rituals. Why didn’t you try to make this right?”

“I did!” Jinn took her head in her hands. “I begged audience with the Imperator and Trey to explain it was only a misunderstanding born of my ignorance about their customs. His Excellency denied my request. Wouldn’t allow me to enter his manor. Wouldn’t allow me to speak to Trey. He sent guards to deliver my Notice of Banishment and those same guards escorted me promptly back to the transfer station to take the next flight home.”

In the two days since her return she’d sat at the portal in her compartment, staring down at the blue oceans of Veros, and longing for the one she’d left behind. Longing to hear his voice. Longing to hold his strong hands and look into his calming eyes. Longing for everything they could no longer share. The cold ball of despair in her gut stole away her appetite, her sleep…her will to go on.

“The Imperator has expressed his anger at your rejection of his son’s bid. At the insistence of their Conclave of Elders, he has severed our trade agreement. We will all live with the consequences now. And perhaps die with them. Both Talstar and Perling could perish from your selfish act.”

“Selfish? I only was asking for more time.”

“Why more time? Did you find the Imperator’s second son undesirable? Questionable as a prospect?”

“No.” Jinn stared at the hands she had clenched in her lap. “He is more than desirable. He is…perfect. Kind. Considerate. Intelligent. But how were we to live? I can’t live my life underwater, can’t exist in a bubble with a limited battery life. And he wouldn’t be happy here on Talstar.”

“How do you know?”

Picturing his blue and beautiful world, she muttered, “I know.”

“Jinn.” Her father shook his head. “While you were gone, our scientists completed work on an apparatus that would have allowed you to breathe in their world by pulling oxygen from the sea water just as some sea creatures do. You would have no longer have needed to rely solely on your envirosphere. You could have been as one of them. Lived as one with them.”

Jinn stared at him. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“Why didn’t you trust me? Of course I’m aware of the challenges the two of you would face in making a life together. I’ve been working on a solution since the bid was extended to you.”

“If only I’d known.”

“If only you hadn’t acted so rashly.”

“It was never my intention to reject Trey!”

“Your intentions mean nothing now. In the eyes of the Perling, you have spurned the Imperator’s second son. And now we will all face the fallout.” Her father paused, his looming silence telling Jinn that he had more to say, and she sensed by the weight of his stare that his words would further crush her faltering heart. “There is one hope that the Imperator’s wrath will be short-lived and the gash you sliced in our partnership will be healed. Word has come that the second son has offered a bid to a Perling female. She has accepted.”

Jinn’s heart seized. Her world spun out of orbit and plunged into a black abyss. Trey—her Trey—had bid for another? She covered her mouth to muffle a quiet sob. “How can this be true?”

“He had no choice in it. In their culture, a male who has bid and been rejected is considered an outcast, an undesirable. The Imperator made quick arrangements to ensure his second son wasn’t shunned by Perling society.” Her father turned his head to stare out the viewport. “Trey and his chosen bride will complete their bond before the midtide falls in ten turnings of their world.”

“No!” Jinn pressed her fists to her stomach. Trey in the arms of another? Touching, holding, mating with her—bonded until death? Was this the price she would pay for hesitation? Was it the price she deserved to pay for not believing in him and their future?

But what of his feelings for her? Did they mean nothing now? She had to know if this bid was his own. His own choice. His own desire.

She must know.

Jinn raised her teary eyes from the warm sea far below. “I need to go to him.”

Her father’s voice went cold and sharp as a steel blade. “I forbid it! Your rejection was final. I will not allow you to bring further dishonor to your people by another impetuous act. You made your choice by not making it! You will not return to Veros and risk making matters worse than they already are. Not ever.”

***

Twenty marks separated her father’s harsh declaration from the moment Jinn overrode the docking clamps and commandeered a shuttle for the Perling sea. Defying her father’s orders meant she could never return to Talstar. Now lacking a home, family or future, she hurtled downward, hoping that somehow she could find a way to right this terrible wrong.

She clutched the breathing device she held in her hands. Not only was she blatantly defying her father’s command, she’d become a thief by stealing the breather from the science lab.

The Star had a word for such a person.

Outlaw.

______________________________________

The once shy, sheltered Jinn has just learned that sometimes you have to fight for what you love, no matter the cost.

But where will this wild quest lead her? Does she have any hope of repairing the damage that's been done...or is it already too late?

Thanks for reading and as always feel free to comment on the story. I plan to be back next Monday with Part 24!