Page 28 of The Space Traveller's Lover
As she hears Rothwen’s voice, she tries to get up but immediately lets herself fall, realising Rothwen is sitting on the floor in front of her. She sits up while briefly looking back into the gaping blackness, hardly believing she has returned from that bottomless abyss.
“Revealing. Our Honourable Counsellor, Zula-Or, helped me understand and accept my true ancestry, and she gave me this gorgeous diamond.” Shaillah lifts the beautifully crafted gemstone from her chest.
“Oh, she gave you the Quark-Star diamond! One of her most prized possessions. Zula must like you very much,” Rothwen exclaims, fully realising that the unique gift is Zula-Or’s message of acceptance for Shaillah.
Shaillah keeps admiring the flickering stone—so many facets, so many colourful sparks.Like my own rapidly untangling life, she thinks.
“You definitely made an impression on her. Zula-Or can tell how special you are. And she is a very wise lady.” Rothwen adds while lifting Shaillah’s chin and gazing enticingly at her.
“I see the desire in your eyes. She warned me about you,” Shaillah says hesitantly.
“She did?” Rothwen grins while clutching her hands inside his broad palms. “True, she is right to warn you. I don’t have a glittering record, so to speak. But only I know how I feel. Only I know why you are here—now. Nothing could change my mind, not even Kuzhma-Or or Zula-Or or any otherOi Renski. It was a long-fought battle. Of course, they had to give in at some point—”
“I see.”
“As I started to feel something new, something unusual … it hit me like a paralysing flare, but I wanted more.”
“Why unusual?”
“For us, very unusual. We care for victories and riches, skill and precision, perfect results. Everything else is irrelevant, inconvenient. So, in our quest for perfection, some useless traits and feelings were edited out of our genes.”
“For example?”
“Fear, pain, guilt, and …” Rothwen stops as if struggling for words.
He caresses her forehead while gazing intensely at her as if looking for an answer.
“Tell me how you feel, Shaillah. Do you feel your skin burning when we are close?”
“Yes, very much!”
“That’s exactly how I feel. I think this feeling can’t be bad if it makes my heart beat faster.”
“What makes you feel like this?”
“Not what, Shaillah … but who.” Rothwen fervently says while drawing her face closer towards him.
She looks deep into his sharp green eyes, enthralled, imagining that she is swimming into his pupils.
“Perhaps a dormant trait was always lurking inside me, waiting to be awakened,” Rothwen ponders. “Or sometimes space warriors need something to thump their bleak souls.”
They speak in a mixed language without even noticing if it is human or Rom-Ghenshar.
He places her hand over his heart while sliding his hand under her pink diamond pendant and over her heart.
“Is this feeling what humans call ‘passion’?” he asks.
“I think so,” she murmurs, stroking his warm hand.
They feel their exhilarating heartbeats pulsating through their veins as they desperately kiss in an electrifying embrace. Shaillah’s shivering body flutters against his strong muscles, and an overwhelming sensation invades him, that same feeling that he cannot entirely shake off, no matter how hard he tries.
“Is there anything stronger than passion?” he asks as he kisses her again and again, in between words.
“Yes. It is calledlove.”
“What’s it like?”
“I don’t know. But I’ve seen it in movies and read it in books. It can kill, or it can heal. It’s so strong it can make you lose your mind.”
