Page 28 of Secretly Married To My Monster Alien Boss
Down the road stood the village, its houses nestled between the trees, the great river winding between them. He’s swam in that river as a child, near the marketplace, watching from afar as his mother talked to every single Deruzian vendor. Each of them was honored someone from the Te’Oken dynasty had stopped by their colorful stall.
This valley had been Rynar’s haven for as long as he remembered. During those first few months of training at the academy, he fell asleep dreaming about the tall grass shielding him as he played v’tati with the other children, the long hot days when he’d quell his thirst in the mighty river.
But the valley wasn’t without danger.
“Play it,” he muttered.
The hologram began to shift into the model Nazyn himself had checked a dozen times. The great Blighted Storm came, as it always did every few hundred years. The river swelled up, swallowing the village, destroying the walls and carrying the roofs downstream. The tops of the hills began to shake and tumble downwards.
Rynar could hear the screams of the children he’d played alongside with, now adults who could do nothing to protect their own younglings against nature’s wrath. His own house was devoured by the river. But Rynar knew its walls would survive, as they had during the last Blight.
But he knew what destruction it would bring to the valley. He’d remembered the legends from his schooling.
They were not legends.
He’d asked some of Deruzia’s best scientists to model the weather patterns for the next few years. This would be the inevitable result if he did not act. The Te’Oken dynasty was responsible for the wellbeing of the valley and its inhabitants, but Rynar could not act without the seal. It would signify to the elders that he was now in charge.
The elders viewed any changes to their few, precious valleys as serious business. They feared intervening against nature’s will. They had seen what had happened on Quillon. The hubris which had almost destroyed that planet.
But Rynar didn’t want to rage war. He wanted to build a dam that would help the valley survive when the Blight came.
And it would come.
“Build it,” he said.
Again, the hologram changed. This time, when the storm fell down over the valley, the dam kept the river’s fury at bay, even as it shook. The pillars Rynar wanted to install inside the hills convulsed under the strain, but the earth didn’t tumble.
A few houses were lost to the winds, but most remained.
The door behind him slid open.
“What that?” Zinny asked as he sauntered inside.
“Home,” Rynar said. “And my legacy.”
He’d never imagined having a family of his own–but he could help others create and keep theirs safe. He would die with pride if he accomplished that.
“Pretty.” Zinny hopped onto the bed, which he wasn’t allowed to. Rynar was too transfixed with the hologram to chastise him. “Like the lady.”
A corner of Rynar’s lips quirked. “You do like her.”
“You too.” Zinny stretched onto the sheets, tail flicking in the air. “She like you.”
Rynar tried to ignore the quickening of his twin hearts. “How do you know?”
“Smiles at you.” Zinny wandered right on top of Rynar’s pillow and sat down, coiling his tail around his body. “Nighty night.”
“Sleep well.” This time, Rynar looked at him. Alissia was right. Zinny wascu-te.
His eyes traveled to the wall separating them, the glow of the hologram dancing across it.
“Good night,” he whispered, knowing Alissia wouldn’t hear and that he shouldn’t indulge these dangerous emotional instincts.
That was a risk he couldn’t take. For her sake, his, and the valley’s.
14
ALISSIA
