My 1000-years love

Chapter 6

A long time ago, when our souls did not yet have such dense bodies, we lived together. In a community of souls on the higher-order planet Allianaat. It’s not even in this dimension. And your soul was female back then too, while mine was male. Then, after a grand catastrophe caused by one of the co-rulers of the galactic depths, the dimension in which Allianaat reigned was compressed into the components of the material world, and as a higher planet, it ceased to exist, manifesting in the material world as the planet Athaon. This was accompanied by major planetary cataclysms, similar to those on your Earth at the beginning of its existence. The cataclysms were not only material but also energetic. Many were saved, including us. But our souls were thrown into different wormholes and scattered to different ends of various galactic clusters. After that, we started making mistakes. So, our souls became denser, and they needed physical bodies. We reincarnated many times until we finally reincarnated within the borders of the same Metagalaxy. That’s why I was able to find you through so many eons. I heard your call, you understand?” He whispered to my face.

I held my breath. Goosebumps ran down my spine, making me shiver. I had so many questions, but not a single right one.

"Wait, why do you know all this? And I don’t?"

"I remember all this. From the very beginning."

"Why don’t I remember?"

He leaned closer to me and quietly rustled:

"Because you made more mistakes. And eventually, you ended up on Earth. It’s something like a kindergarten for souls."

"So, you’re all enlightened, and I’m from kindergarten? Listen, why do you need me? Find someone at your level."

He sharply pulled me even closer, so my knees pressed directly against his... oh no, it was so huge.

"I don’t need anyone else. Even if you were in the two-dimensional Daifur. Now that I’ve found you, I won’t let you go," he said with feeling, looking into my eyes. ”All these levels don’t matter. It’s like climbing a high mountain. Some move slowly, some quickly. Some are at the beginning, some in the middle. But they are all still people, and none of them is better than the others, even if they have traveled further in their journey."

I looked into his magical turquoise eyes and still didn’t feel that this bastard had any right to take me without permission. For several long moments, we stared at each other. I felt something. I felt a kinship of souls. I was sure I had known him for a thousand years. But none of this calmed me, none of it soothed my anger, nor did it ease the anxiety of being separated from my children. I knew he was my past. But they were my future. He shouldn’t have forcibly taken me back for himself. I couldn’t come to terms with that. I took a deep breath and pushed him away. This time, I was allowed to move further.

"Did you read everything in my head?" I asked calmly.

“Yes,” he replied in his monotone manner.

“And?”

He shook his head as if shaking something off.

“I didn’t account for this. I’ve been alive for a very long time, even in this incarnation. Not to mention that I remember all the previous ones. Some feelings, I simply…” He hesitated. “Forgotten…”

“And how old are you? As a Raath?”

“Seven thousand…”

I whistled. I have never managed to do that when I really wanted to. But now it came out on its own.

“Well preserved. And how long do you live in general?”

“Around thirty. Thousand.”

“So you’re still young?” I tried to joke. The joke was not appreciated. He looked down at me with his annoying scrutinizing gaze. As if still deciding what I was and what to do with me. Got yourself a pet, now you’re tormented about what to do with it.

He smirked. Oh yes, he reads all my thoughts, the tenacious jerk. Sgannar frowned.

“Enough with the insults. I don’t always like it.”

“Should I tell you what I don’t like?”

“No need, I already understand.”

He stood up gracefully and walked back to his huge window. He looked into the depths of space for a long time, occasionally rubbing his face with his hands. It seemed to be one of his habits.

Then he stared again, standing so still that it seemed as if a magnificent, enormous statue was before me. Looking at him, I felt admiration. Admiration for a creation of nature. But nothing more. His guilt toward me overshadowed all other feelings. Except for a budding sense of hope. Because if, according to his stories, I meant something to him, he couldn’t just imprison me in this tin can, or in his lair on some other planet. That would contradict all the lofty tales he had just so passionately told here. And why couldn’t this fool have thought about this earlier? Why were my feelings put on the same level as those of a housefly? What kind of world-ruler habits are these?

He moved.

“That’s because I am a ruler. I am an Archon.”

“And what is that supposed to mean to me?”

"Just that I have made a decision. I turned the ship around as soon as I found out you had sons. But…” I gasped. And he had been silent all this time? What a crocodile! He actually did it for me! Maybe it’s not so hopeless after all! Will he take me back? Or does he want to take them? Amidst this torrent of thoughts, I hadn’t noticed that he had been silent for some time, standing with his eyes closed and waiting with irritation for me to stop “thinking out loud.”

“Now, pause your emotional outburst and let me continue. If you haven’t realized it yet, I’m never going to part with you again.”

“So, what have you decided?” My joy diminished considerably. Still, he had decided to steer the ship in the right direction. Unless he changes his mind again. “It hasn’t been that long since you kidnapped me. We can still go back for them, right?”

“Unfortunately, no. One of the reasons I couldn’t stay on Earth for more than half an hour is the pulsing wormhole of Gaia-Alpha. It’s an almost instantaneous way to get to Earth from the Saigrahara cluster, covering a billion and two hundred million light years in a couple of minutes. One transition and that’s it. But, as I said, it pulses in cycles because the distance it covers is enormous, even by our standards. We’ve already passed through it, and it’s closed again for one and a half of your cycles. Right now, you are one and a half billion light years away from Gaia.”

“Oh my God, I can’t even… I can’t grasp that number. I won’t see them for a year and a half?”

“Since you will soon become my Lleiro in the traditions of the Rayouarath Empire, I must give you a wedding gift.” A wild thought crossed my mind to protest, to ask a lot of questions, but I decided not to interrupt the big guy for now. “Our empire is not yet represented on Earth, and in this sense, finding you there is very convenient. We will build a small teleportation device that will connect an Arcturian teleportation device on Gaia, which they established there long ago, with ours. We will need their permission, but they are quite kind folks. To build it, I need a lot of a special mineral, Eneon. It did not form in your Milky Way; the nearest planetoids with its deposits are in the Zaora mining system, which is here in the Sloan Great Wall cluster, according to your terms. But in reality, it’s a metacluster of the Saigrahara Empire, and they are our allies. We will go through a couple of wormholes and reach the Rana system in about a month.”

“W-where?” My mind refused to engage in the kaleidoscope of events, names, and distances. So, I decided to ask more earthly questions. “And how long has it been since you took me?”

“Not long. I think about a week by your time.”

I started pacing the room, muttering, “They think I’m missing… Or abandoned them. God forbid…”

His heavy hands rested on my shoulders.

“Are you interested in your future?” he asked softly. Such unexpected tenderness from him left me bewildered, and I nodded.

“The teleporter can only transport a few people in one of your Earth days. Then, Eneon needs recharging from the energy of any star. So, using portals directly on the ship is difficult. I will have to make some effort to create it. And it can’t be done in the confined space of the ship. Nevertheless, you will be able to ‘visit’ your children. Either you persuade them to go through the horrors of the reparative module and transform their bodies to exist in our dimension, which children can undergo much faster and more painlessly, or you will visit them as often as you want, directly from our home on Tauanir. Don’t forget that your place is now by my side, in my life,” he paused, “and in my bed.”

My first thought: well, that’s better. It would be even better if he just returned me. But who am I kidding? Things weren’t that great for me there lately. And everything here is insanely interesting. Sgannar smirked.

“Exactly. I will give you a better life. And your family too. Believe me.” He extended his hand to me, and I obediently gave him mine. I didn’t want to be difficult. Now my state resembled a deflated balloon. He abruptly pulled me close and hugged me tightly.