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“I’ll go help,” Jhan called out.

“I don’t need help. Besides, you got things to do here.”

“Such as?” Jhan demanded.

“Keeping my brother and my new nephew safe!” Rokai said.

“He’s got me. I’ve got his back,” Elspeth said to Jhan.

“Yes, I’ve got Elspeth.” Rokai grinned as he stepped back into his ship and locked eyes with Quin as his door slowly closed.

At the last moment Quin lifted his arm and slammed it over his chest in a sign of loyalty.

Rokai nodded at his brother and smiled just as the door closed.

~~~

Rokai and Elspeth both took their seats, strapping themselves in as the ship’s engines began to rev.

“So, who is that male that kept asking who I am?”

“Jhan? He’s a dick. And believe me, I know. I know well what a dick is. I used to be one. My Ehlealah told me so.”

“Why is it that your speech patterns are filled with human slang?”

“Because my sister of the heart is human, as is my Ehlealah. I find I prefer the relaxed way they speak versus the more formal speech I was raised with. Though, even that has been affected by the speech patterns of my sister of the heart.”

“Sister of the heart?”

“Sirena Vivian, of Earth. She is my brother’s Ehlealah.”

Elspeth nodded.

“Why is it that your speech patterns are peppered with so many human slang phrases?” Rokai asked.

Elspeth smiled sadly. “In our village, certain young women were given to the Temple to be raised when they came of age. Shortly after I arrived there, they took on a servant they found for sale in a market.”

“You mean a slave,” Rokai grumbled.

“She certainly would have been, and might have been prior, but once she was bought by the Temple, she was a servant to earn her keep. She never did get home, but she was treated kindly and with respect once she came to live at the Temple. I loved her. While the priestesses taught me to become a priestess myself, and those of the order that were warriors helped me hone my gifts of battle, she taught me other things. She taught me about being tolerant and kind, but that being tolerant and kind did not equal letting others take advantage of you. She taught me to be confident, and despite the lessons of the priestesses to give yourself wholly to the temple and gods and goddesses we served, to always withhold a little piece of my soul. To never lose that little piece unique to only me because that was the thing that made me special. It was the thing that made me stronger than those who’d given away all that they were. Most importantly, she taught me what it was to be loved just because I breathed. She loved me more than my own family did. And she was human.”

“I’m sorry you lost her,” Rokai said.

Elspeth shrugged. “She was very, very old. There came a time that it was just the two of us, and despite her age, she still did her best to try to take care of me, keep me in line. I buriedher beneath the ruins of the Temple I swore my allegiance to as a young girl. After that, there was no reason to remain.”

“Ruins?” Rokai asked.

“When the powerful decide they cannot have any others hold power at all, they will try their best to erase them from the land, and take their land.”

“I have seen it many times,” Rokai said.

“Was she the last alive other than yourself?”

“No. But it was time for me to leave them. There was nothing else I could do for them. Some vowed to continue in their services to the gods. Others began to scatter and I felt pulled to do the same. I have far too many questions to be an effective priestess.”

“You’re a hell of a warrior, though.”

Elspeth smiled. “That I am. A warrioress, though.”

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