HONOR
EPISODE 65
EPISODE 65
Spoiler:
I looked at him, stunned. “They executed her? Like--they put her up against a wall and shot her? The Ancients?”
“A different kind of death sentence and execution than the one you think; a lot less crude and a lot more cruel—she was denied their precious Ascension.” He let out a subdued snarl. “In many ways like the death of a Wraith—a denial of immortality.”
“But there was no Ascension.” A meaningless death sentence. But she didn’t know that. She had, in her mind, given her immortality for the life of a Wraith.
“In her mind, there was,” he echoed my thought. “In reality?” He shrugged. “They were at the end arrogant fools.” Like all humans, I expected him to add. But he did not. He turned his face to me. “She had told the Blue Wraith of an Ascension Ships somewhere at the edge of the galaxy—she knew the secret of its location--and made him promise that he would take her there when she died. I do not know the sequence of events, but he fulfilled his promise and took her to the ship. It was out there, unguarded. No one thought that a Wraith could reach it.” He grinned. “But they did; by then, the Ancients were defeated and gone. The Ancient woman had lived longer because of the Gift of Life. But, at the end she was ready to die. By the time he got to the Ascension Ship, she was barely alive. He found pods, tier after tier of them. He put her in one, as she had taught him.” He paused, grinning vaguely at the galaxies shimmering in the window. “She had told him that in time, their bodies would be dissolved and transformed into a form that contained their very essence and thoughts, a bodiless entity that could be perceived by the eye as a blue luminosity. In this state, they would be absorbed into the universe and thus ascend.” The grin became more gleeful, the sharp teeth showing. “Wraith are a curious and suspicious race; also a patient one. He waited to witness Ascension. He even contemplated following her. But, all of them, including her, slowly turned to dust. Even their bones crumbled. Just the machines flickered.” He let out a long breath. “Yet, he told me, he would try to call her. Of course there was no answer. When he became a Ship Wraith, he no longer called her. And then, when you came, you reminded him of it and he called her again.” He shook his head slightly. “He thought he had heard her answer. Just as he died. An illusion. Delirium. He was dying.” He hissed, the sound menacing in the back of his throat.
“Yes, an illusion. But a moment of comfort.”
“Yes, a moment. Nothing more.”
“Wraith don’t think there is anything after death?”
“Why would there be? That’s immortality, is it not?”
I left it there. I didn’t want to talk of death.
I put my hand on his, the warm skin and cold of the finger guards competing for my attention. I leaned against him and rested my head on his upper arm.
I didn’t want to face death alone.
“What will you do if Lothar becomes the Ship Wraith?” I asked.
“We are a resourceful race, Elena.”
I nodded, the side of my face against the leather of his sleeve and the warm, silken hair.
I heard a distant song and smelled the scent of flowers in a warm forest. The gold and red leaves trembled in the breeze and they became veils of scarlet and amber rising to the sky, wrapping the galaxies. The beauty left me breathless and tingling with warmth and delight.
“What is this?” I whispered.
“Your name.”
“Oh…”
“Do you accept it?”
“Yes.” How could I not, when it gave me such happiness?
“Then it is done.”
With the gift of my name he gave me another gift, for a Wraith one of the deepest intimacy; an intimacy more powerful than that of the flesh, more intoxicating and compelling than any human could conjure with their bodies—the touch of his mind on mine in ways I never imagined a Wraith, or anyone, could. There were no boundaries and there was no inhibition.
It was a long while before I moved, enthralled and captured in the web of his thoughts.
And then I felt something else. The hiveship was not silent anymore.
There was a Ship Wraith present in its core. Lothar. A Ship Wraith had to be there, I understood—oh, I understood so many things now—for a Queen to come into the world. I stood up and waited. My human mind did not know for what, but Amber’s Wraith mind twined with mine to give me the knowledge.
It was time.
Soft veils floated and twirled around me, touching me and surrounding me in a luminous enclosure, like a silk cacoon with the light seeping through it weave. But it was an enclosure that did not imprison me, but captured me in the touch of my Wraith. I allowed myself to fall back into the whispering net of silk—or was it a nest?—and from some distant space filled with all the things I loved—stars, breeze of the ocean, whisper of the forest, scent of flowers and the form of Amber—I heard my name called. I answered it and followed its call until I drowned in its magic.
I sunk slowly into the silks within that cacoon woven by my Wraith. I watched him approach like a ghost, all in white. And that startled me, to see him in white instead of the black. Then his robes became golden red. The white hair flew and spread behind him, like an aura. Was he real, or was it my mind? It did not matter. There was so much happiness that I did not think either my mind or my body could contain it without self destructing.
I felt my clothes open and peel off me. And then I felt something else—like the soft feet of butterflies tap at me and their wings beat against me.
I opened my eyes, drawn out of the distance. Amber’s fingers travelled down my chest and abdomen. The thrill of that touch entered deep inside me. I reached to touch that soft spot on his chest. He lowered himself to allow me to kiss him. I let my fingers travel down to the apex of that triangle that patterned his skin with exuberant designs.
What I saw looked at first human; but then I realized it was not. It was alien, fascinating both in a mesmerizing and frightening way. I froze, my blood turning cold.
When the Wraith’s mating sting touched the skin of my abdomen, my instinct was to scream; but the touch in my mind veiled me in quiet and anticipation. I felt its sting and throb and then I was pushed into a spiral of exquisite pain and deeply aching pleasure. The insane whirl of colors, scents, sounds and fantastic sensation, never known to my mind and body, overwhelmed me.
And then there was complete silence and a dark blue nothingness. Only stars shimmered far, far away.
Now and then I would return from that blissful vessel of deep blue and stars and behold the world around me of fluttering breezes and amber glow; and the Amber Wraith standing in attendance at my feet. He never left, not for a moment, not for a breath. Every time I came back to consciousness I knew that he would be there, his slit amber eyes strangely comfortable.
I was dying, I knew. Whatever life formed within me, it was drawing my own life away. The blue darkness was longer and longer, deeper and deeper. The hiveship hummed softly around me and my Wraith stood guard.
A death watch.
I put out my hand to him. He came closer and I touched his hair. He bent over and kissed me. A Wraith kiss, one of the mind more than of the lips; an imitation of a human kiss. But, a kiss nevertheless.
I heard a distant sound. A whisper. A small squeal. It was the life inside me that was no longer inside. Then a cry. It was a hungry and powerful cry, powerful not so much in volume as in its quality. I saw a tiny hand, barely formed, but with a feeding slit in it. I saw a male worshiper come forth and saw the tiny hand on his chest. I saw the small life draw life from the human; the replenishable life that it would draw from a Wraith mother, but which I could not give any longer, because mine could not be replenished. And then I saw a vague image of a Wraith Queen in my mind; the way she would look when emerging from the chamber in which she would grow for many years. She was tall, with blue eyes, the slits dilated, her hair smooth and silver, to be colored red when she would take her throne. A Primary Queen, insatiable for power and domination.
Death tiptoed around me, circling slowly. Was it a Wraith? No… It was not a Wraith Death. It was a human death, in black, its face pale, perfect and beautiful, the black wings whispering to me as they passed me.
The veils of my protective cocoon parted and I was lifted up on strong arms. I moved through space and time on those arms until a silent bluish light shrouded me. I caught the fluttering image of something disturbing, just a glimmer, that faded quickly--crumbling ashes of dried up husks that had once been people, laid out in glass coffins, their white shrouds gleaming in the blue lights.
The image faded, gone, forgotten, just my imagination.
I was on my back, quiet around me. A hand softly touched my chest and I heard my name of reds, golds, forest scents… And then golds and ambers of my Wraith’ name. Glass moved around me. I touched the silken white hair. It was close to me, covering my breast and face. I felt its warmth. I felt also the solid warmth of the Amber Wraith; one last time.
One last time…
And the blue darkness fell, lengthening, spiraling into a far point of light.
“A different kind of death sentence and execution than the one you think; a lot less crude and a lot more cruel—she was denied their precious Ascension.” He let out a subdued snarl. “In many ways like the death of a Wraith—a denial of immortality.”
“But there was no Ascension.” A meaningless death sentence. But she didn’t know that. She had, in her mind, given her immortality for the life of a Wraith.
“In her mind, there was,” he echoed my thought. “In reality?” He shrugged. “They were at the end arrogant fools.” Like all humans, I expected him to add. But he did not. He turned his face to me. “She had told the Blue Wraith of an Ascension Ships somewhere at the edge of the galaxy—she knew the secret of its location--and made him promise that he would take her there when she died. I do not know the sequence of events, but he fulfilled his promise and took her to the ship. It was out there, unguarded. No one thought that a Wraith could reach it.” He grinned. “But they did; by then, the Ancients were defeated and gone. The Ancient woman had lived longer because of the Gift of Life. But, at the end she was ready to die. By the time he got to the Ascension Ship, she was barely alive. He found pods, tier after tier of them. He put her in one, as she had taught him.” He paused, grinning vaguely at the galaxies shimmering in the window. “She had told him that in time, their bodies would be dissolved and transformed into a form that contained their very essence and thoughts, a bodiless entity that could be perceived by the eye as a blue luminosity. In this state, they would be absorbed into the universe and thus ascend.” The grin became more gleeful, the sharp teeth showing. “Wraith are a curious and suspicious race; also a patient one. He waited to witness Ascension. He even contemplated following her. But, all of them, including her, slowly turned to dust. Even their bones crumbled. Just the machines flickered.” He let out a long breath. “Yet, he told me, he would try to call her. Of course there was no answer. When he became a Ship Wraith, he no longer called her. And then, when you came, you reminded him of it and he called her again.” He shook his head slightly. “He thought he had heard her answer. Just as he died. An illusion. Delirium. He was dying.” He hissed, the sound menacing in the back of his throat.
“Yes, an illusion. But a moment of comfort.”
“Yes, a moment. Nothing more.”
“Wraith don’t think there is anything after death?”
“Why would there be? That’s immortality, is it not?”
I left it there. I didn’t want to talk of death.
I put my hand on his, the warm skin and cold of the finger guards competing for my attention. I leaned against him and rested my head on his upper arm.
I didn’t want to face death alone.
“What will you do if Lothar becomes the Ship Wraith?” I asked.
“We are a resourceful race, Elena.”
I nodded, the side of my face against the leather of his sleeve and the warm, silken hair.
I heard a distant song and smelled the scent of flowers in a warm forest. The gold and red leaves trembled in the breeze and they became veils of scarlet and amber rising to the sky, wrapping the galaxies. The beauty left me breathless and tingling with warmth and delight.
“What is this?” I whispered.
“Your name.”
“Oh…”
“Do you accept it?”
“Yes.” How could I not, when it gave me such happiness?
“Then it is done.”
With the gift of my name he gave me another gift, for a Wraith one of the deepest intimacy; an intimacy more powerful than that of the flesh, more intoxicating and compelling than any human could conjure with their bodies—the touch of his mind on mine in ways I never imagined a Wraith, or anyone, could. There were no boundaries and there was no inhibition.
It was a long while before I moved, enthralled and captured in the web of his thoughts.
And then I felt something else. The hiveship was not silent anymore.
There was a Ship Wraith present in its core. Lothar. A Ship Wraith had to be there, I understood—oh, I understood so many things now—for a Queen to come into the world. I stood up and waited. My human mind did not know for what, but Amber’s Wraith mind twined with mine to give me the knowledge.
It was time.
Soft veils floated and twirled around me, touching me and surrounding me in a luminous enclosure, like a silk cacoon with the light seeping through it weave. But it was an enclosure that did not imprison me, but captured me in the touch of my Wraith. I allowed myself to fall back into the whispering net of silk—or was it a nest?—and from some distant space filled with all the things I loved—stars, breeze of the ocean, whisper of the forest, scent of flowers and the form of Amber—I heard my name called. I answered it and followed its call until I drowned in its magic.
I sunk slowly into the silks within that cacoon woven by my Wraith. I watched him approach like a ghost, all in white. And that startled me, to see him in white instead of the black. Then his robes became golden red. The white hair flew and spread behind him, like an aura. Was he real, or was it my mind? It did not matter. There was so much happiness that I did not think either my mind or my body could contain it without self destructing.
I felt my clothes open and peel off me. And then I felt something else—like the soft feet of butterflies tap at me and their wings beat against me.
I opened my eyes, drawn out of the distance. Amber’s fingers travelled down my chest and abdomen. The thrill of that touch entered deep inside me. I reached to touch that soft spot on his chest. He lowered himself to allow me to kiss him. I let my fingers travel down to the apex of that triangle that patterned his skin with exuberant designs.
What I saw looked at first human; but then I realized it was not. It was alien, fascinating both in a mesmerizing and frightening way. I froze, my blood turning cold.
When the Wraith’s mating sting touched the skin of my abdomen, my instinct was to scream; but the touch in my mind veiled me in quiet and anticipation. I felt its sting and throb and then I was pushed into a spiral of exquisite pain and deeply aching pleasure. The insane whirl of colors, scents, sounds and fantastic sensation, never known to my mind and body, overwhelmed me.
And then there was complete silence and a dark blue nothingness. Only stars shimmered far, far away.
Now and then I would return from that blissful vessel of deep blue and stars and behold the world around me of fluttering breezes and amber glow; and the Amber Wraith standing in attendance at my feet. He never left, not for a moment, not for a breath. Every time I came back to consciousness I knew that he would be there, his slit amber eyes strangely comfortable.
I was dying, I knew. Whatever life formed within me, it was drawing my own life away. The blue darkness was longer and longer, deeper and deeper. The hiveship hummed softly around me and my Wraith stood guard.
A death watch.
I put out my hand to him. He came closer and I touched his hair. He bent over and kissed me. A Wraith kiss, one of the mind more than of the lips; an imitation of a human kiss. But, a kiss nevertheless.
I heard a distant sound. A whisper. A small squeal. It was the life inside me that was no longer inside. Then a cry. It was a hungry and powerful cry, powerful not so much in volume as in its quality. I saw a tiny hand, barely formed, but with a feeding slit in it. I saw a male worshiper come forth and saw the tiny hand on his chest. I saw the small life draw life from the human; the replenishable life that it would draw from a Wraith mother, but which I could not give any longer, because mine could not be replenished. And then I saw a vague image of a Wraith Queen in my mind; the way she would look when emerging from the chamber in which she would grow for many years. She was tall, with blue eyes, the slits dilated, her hair smooth and silver, to be colored red when she would take her throne. A Primary Queen, insatiable for power and domination.
Death tiptoed around me, circling slowly. Was it a Wraith? No… It was not a Wraith Death. It was a human death, in black, its face pale, perfect and beautiful, the black wings whispering to me as they passed me.
The veils of my protective cocoon parted and I was lifted up on strong arms. I moved through space and time on those arms until a silent bluish light shrouded me. I caught the fluttering image of something disturbing, just a glimmer, that faded quickly--crumbling ashes of dried up husks that had once been people, laid out in glass coffins, their white shrouds gleaming in the blue lights.
The image faded, gone, forgotten, just my imagination.
I was on my back, quiet around me. A hand softly touched my chest and I heard my name of reds, golds, forest scents… And then golds and ambers of my Wraith’ name. Glass moved around me. I touched the silken white hair. It was close to me, covering my breast and face. I felt its warmth. I felt also the solid warmth of the Amber Wraith; one last time.
One last time…
And the blue darkness fell, lengthening, spiraling into a far point of light.
I am left speechless at the end of this, I think I just want to cry, its such a great love story, for all time.
Maybe Uncle Lothar?
He would be just right.
And the other male Wraith; and a new Commander, since Amber is gone. It is in their best interest to have a Queen, so they would be very good parents.
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