My 1000-years love

Chapter15

Several hours later, when the information was spilling out of my ears and practically not being absorbed, I jumped at the booming voice of Agron above me:

"Are you trying to starve an Archaite to death or bore her with your droning voice, alarius Diarth Nimaarit?"

"It’s fine," I hurried to save Di from fainting. ”I found it very interesting!”

"You’re lucky she enjoys your ramblings. But now it’s time to feed her.”

How many nannies had I suddenly acquired! It was actually nice! Agron dragged me to the dining hall. On the way, I was surprised to learn that yesterday I hadn’t passed out from alcohol but from some clever manipulations by Sgannar himself, who had slipped in unnoticed at the height of the festivities. He had put me to sleep for everyone’s amusement and unceremoniously dragged me to his lair. It seemed he simply didn’t know how to interact with women any other way.

"Agron, are there any races on your ship capable of causing physical discomfort just by looking at you?”

“What are you talking about, Haag?” Agron stopped abruptly. “Did someone upset you? Who?”

“No, no one upset me, calm down, my knight. I’m just curious.”

“As far as I know, no. The raath can, but among the raath, we only have Sgannar and... no, that’s it. Otherwise, no.”

I decided that most likely those “wonderful” sensations were a gift from my abductor, who had managed to arrive at our impromptu club just in time.

In the mess hall, it was the peak of socializing and eating. They sat me at yesterday’s table, thoughtfully bringing a high bar stool. Surprisingly quickly, I found common ground with the guys, slightly taking a break from Diarth’s tediousness. There was no sign of the angry raath, and I sighed in relief.

“Tell me, has Trin been released?”

“Yes, Haag. Thank you for intervening, Trin is a good guy.”

The lunch passed very quickly in light-hearted chatter. At the next table sat Agron’s girl from yesterday. Feeling more comfortable, I decided to move on to personal topics.

“Agron, what’s your friend’s name?”

Agron glanced over.

“Oh, that’s Regev.”

“A beautiful name. And the girl is beautiful.”

Indeed, the girl was strikingly beautiful with a harsh military charm. A shaved head, huge gray eyes, perfectly golden skin, and ideal eyebrows made her look somewhat like Nefertiti. But there was also something of a primal warrior in her.

Agron, it seemed, had turned from his usual reddish hue to beet red and awkwardly averted his eyes.

At the end, another group of “dressed-up Vikings” as I now called them, entered the hall. Among them was Tragaon, cleaned up, changed, and beaming. Everyone greeted him with joyful cheers, and he immediately headed towards us, dropping to one knee before me and bowing his head. I immediately choked and, to stop his farce, clumsily slid off my stool, still wheezing, and crouched beside him, waving my arms and legs to make him stand up. And all this under the watchful eyes of everyone present. Finally, it ended. I cleared my throat, and Trin understood my wishes and stood up, towering over me by a good two and a half feet. He was definitely much taller than Sgannar.

“I owe you my freedom, my Archaite.”

“Quiet, Trin, less drama. Not everyone needs to know this,” I hushed him, looking around to see who had heard him. Everyone had, as the dining hall was dead silent.

“I have nothing to hide, Archaite. You vouched for me. I want to repay you in kind. Know that I will give my life for you.”

“That’s not worth giving your life for,” my loud whisper echoed through the dining hall. ”Sgannar would have released you soon anyway.”

“Archaite, I disobeyed his direct order. For that, they don’t just imprison you, they execute you. But I’m free. And only because of you.” He also lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Alright, alright. By the way, will you train me?” I said a bit louder, and the people who had returned to their meals once again turned their eyes to us. Damn, couldn’t I have waited a bit?

Trin blinked.

“Archaite, not me. My training could be very dangerous for you.”

“So what, I’ll learn better that way,” I stubbornly shook my head, which elicited another round of approving grunts in the hall. “The Archon already agreed!”

Trin, still looking confused, muttered, “As my Archaite wishes.”

“Haag, Trin. Call me Haag. And everyone else too,” I barked at everyone simultaneously. “Enough of these terrible epithets!”

We returned to our seats. Tragaon settled in the far corner, and I once again felt someone drilling a hole in my back. Deciding that the angry raath had again appeared behind me without permission, I turned sharply and locked eyes with yesterday’s grim guy with piercing gray eyes, whom I had threatened with my fist. Sgannar was nowhere to be seen. The grim guy quickly averted his eyes, and the unpleasant feeling ceased.

“We’ll figure this out later, sweetheart,” I thought grimly, watching him. The guy quickly glanced at me again and buried his face in his plate. It seemed no one here talked to him.

However, Agron witnessed our staring contest.

“Who is that?”

“Kalon. Better not try to make contact with him. He hardly talks to anyone. I’ve only heard him say yes or no when spoken to. Too reclusive and grim even for us. But he’s the best mechanic of all inhabited planets of Eia and Anaya. He could dismantle the entire T-GInArA down to the last bolt and reassemble it without any instructions. And a genius stormtrooper. The Captain tolerates his oddities, even rudeness. He can’t stand women, it seems. At least, he’s never lowered himself to speak with them. So, they reciprocate.”

Agron shrugged.

“Everyone has their quirks.”

“That’s true,” I agreed. ”And what race is he?”

“Allion. You see, he looks just like you Earthlings. So, he’s an Allion.”

“And you?”

“I’m a Dagr.”

“I’ll have a long time remembering all this information. Especially now that Trin will be knocking all sense and memory out of me during training,” I said, making Regev laugh at the next table. I smiled at her.

After the meal, Trin couldn’t escape. Poor guy had to drag himself to the training section with a terrestrial cling-on in the form of me, eager to get my face smashed in for the sake of learning. Initially, Trin was restrained and cautious, which was terribly annoying. I had to have a heartfelt conversation with him, repeating all my arguments and embellishing them with gruesome scenes of enemies of the Archon brutally disposing of his llieiro. Tragaon thoughtfully nodded, frowned, and sighed, and when I went on a roll, he even pleaded for me to stop talking. I did overdo it a bit. But he took me seriously. First was a light, in his understanding, warm-up, consisting of tendon-tearing stretches, attempts to get me into splits, push-ups until my muscles cracked and I had a headache, and fighting with a hanging bag designed for grown alien men. Miles of running in circles. When I begged for mercy, Trin mercilessly replied:

“This is for your own safety, lerder Haagnarath.”

“Who?” I croaked, barely breathing and drenched in sweat.

“Lerder - student. Now stop lying around,” he suddenly barked. “Get to the shower, or soon all the flies on the ship will drop dead because of you.”

And he was such a sweetheart. I messed it up again, I thought, smiling, and trudged to the exit.

“Stop!”

Damn, he was on a roll.

“And what about thanking the teacher?” he chided good-naturedly. Indeed, I hadn’t even said thank you. “Allions do it with a bow, placing the right hand on the heart, and the left hand palm up. By the way, this gesture is also used in official meetings when your subjects greet you and the Archon. You need to respond in kind.”

“Sorry, Trin.” I corrected myself and repeated the specified gesture.

Crawling out of the hall, I decided that in such a smelly state it was somehow not fitting to walk through the entire ship, and without thinking twice about the fact that I wasn’t the only one on the ship who needed to train, I headed to the shower room attached to the training section. Only to bump my nose right into the bare, water-dropped, perfect torso of the grim guy with the venomous, scorching gaze. Kalon.

How much I wanted to settle things with him, but I simply had no strength! So I squeezed past, even brushing against him with my shoulder, nearly knocking myself off my feet. Entering the tightly closing booth, I once again felt the now-familiar burning in the small of my back. I’ll deal with you later.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my own groans. My entire body felt like it was on fire. Once again, the cabin was empty. Last night, after collapsing from the grueling training session, I had hoped to rest a bit before dinner and muster the remaining energy for another torturous interaction with the arrogant maniac. But by some miracle, I had slept until morning.

“Tiiiii,” I groaned plaintively, “Tiiiii...”

“Yes, Archaite,” the walls replied mockingly.

“Do you have a regenerator for my situation?”

“You could simply ask the Archon.”

“I want to use the regenerator. Is that possible?”

After a couple of seconds, T-GInArA deigned to respond, “Diarth is waiting outside your cabin to escort you to the reparative module.”

“Thank you, dear Ti.”

Finding myself in the same room where I had my notable encounter with Laor, I shivered a bit, dreamily stroked the table, and felt completely disheartened. I hope he survives. What a mess everything turned out to be! The regenerator only needed ten minutes to renew my exhausted body, and then I fluttered into the dining hall for breakfast like a rejuvenated butterfly. Everyone silently stared at me. Okay. Breathe in, breathe out, close my eyes, breathe in again. I’m not some zoo exhibit here. They’re about to get a piece of their Archaite. I have nothing to lose, and these silent pauses in meals for mass gawking are infuriating.

“Stop staring at me!” I barked to no one in particular. “Find something else to amuse yourselves with,” I muttered more quietly. Then I looked around in surprise. They listened to me! The crowd of a good fifty rowdy bikers obediently stared at their plates, continuing their meal in silence. Incredible. My triumphant smile was replaced by concern for the delicate souls of these roughnecks. That’s typical of me.

Agron was openly chuckling.

“Don’t worry, lady. That’s exactly what you should do.”