“Welcome, welcome, Molly from the Stars!” sang the Wise One.
“Thank you, thank you,” Molly sang back. She tried to keep her attention on the greeting but her heart was so troubled it was hard to concentrate. Braxx had left her here at the Wise One’s hut, saying he needed to log in at the ship and check with Commander Sylvan as they were supposed to do every few days.
But Molly knew the truth. He just wanted an excuse to get away from me, she thought sadly. Why is he so angry with me? Because I can see again and so I saw his face? He should have told me what to expect and maybe I wouldn’t have acted so surprised. But if he would just listen…
“Your body is here but your heart and mind are elsewhere, Molly from the Stars,” the Wise One murmured, bringing her back from her troubled thoughts.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Wise One. It’s just…Braxx and I had a, uh, disagreement.”
“That one has wounds which will never heal if he does not expose them to the light.” The Wise One nodded her head knowingly. “But I see that being in the Depths has done you some good—your healing crystal is full to the brim with the light of the Cha’llah.”
“Yes.” Molly tried to smile and feel some of the joy she’d first had when she realized the crystal was working to give her back her normal sight. “Yes, Wise One—I can see now—really see everything in detail. My sight is as good as it was before the accident I had that took it away.”
“Ah, very good.” A wide smile creased the Wise One’s wrinkled face. “I knew the Cha’llah would find you worthy of complete healing, child.”
“I am beyond grateful, but…” Molly hesitated.
“Say on, child. What is your question?” The Wise One cocked her head to one side.
“Well… how long will it last, do you think?” Molly asked cautiously. “I mean, it seemed like it was fading for a while when I was down in the Depths and I just wasn’t sure…”
“The crystal was changing in order to better suit your needs, Molly from the Stars,” the older woman explained. “As for the time it will last, a healing crystal with this much power will continue to do a small daily healing for you for many years—even, perhaps, until the end of your life.”
“Really? That long?” Molly smiled. “That’s wonderful.”
“Or…” The Wise One raised one wrinkled finger in warning. “Or it will do one large healing. If you are injured and your life is in danger, the healing energy of the Cha’llah will be used up in saving your life. The Cha’llah flows where it is most needed. But as long as you remain healthy and do nothing to injure yourself, it should continue to flow to your eyes.”
“Okay, that makes sense, I guess.” Molly nodded. “Thank you, Wise One.”
“Be cautious with that crystal, Molly from the Stars,” the Wise One said. “I have never seen anyone gifted with so much healing energy at once. It may well be that if you squander it, the Cha’llah will refuse you any more.”
“Meaning that I can’t get it, uh, recharged again, right?” Molly asked. She lightly touched the warm, glowing tear-drop shaped crystal which still rested between her eyes. “All right—I’ll be careful with it, I promise. And I’m glad the sacred Cha’llah found me worthy of healing.” She sighed. “I just wish…”
“Wish what, my child?” the Wise One prompted.
“I wish it could have healed Braxx too. Healed his face, I mean.”
“Why do you say so?” The older woman looked at her sharply, her one large eye narrowing to almost the size of her tiny, Deep Dweller-sized eye. “Can you not love him looking as he does?”
“Of course I can love him!” Molly exclaimed passionately. “He went through the Cha’llah to save me—did you know that? And I thought he cared for me but now he’s just so angry and distant and cold.” She ran a hand through her hair. “So it’s not that I can’t love him looking the way he does, but it seems like he can’t love himself.” She sighed. “And if you hate yourself…well, that makes it really hard to love anybody else. I should know—I went through that for a little while after I lost my sight.”
The Wise One shook her head.
“I told him to beware of the Cha’llah—that touching it would freeze his outer self if his inner self was not healed.”
“Freeze it? What does that mean?”
“The power of the Cha’llah works in mysterious ways, child.” The Wise One shook her head. “I am afraid that because he went into it with hurt in his heart, his face is now destined to always show that hurt. I cannot heal his scars with any crystal—they are as they are and shall ever be.”
“What?” Molly felt like crying. “And you say he knew this would happen if he touched the Cha’llah?”
The Wise One nodded. “I warned him several times.”
“But he did it anyway, for me,” Molly whispered. “Was he just fulfilling his vow to keep me safe…or does he really care?”
“Only Braxx from the Sky can answer that,” the Wise One said. “But for now—”
Suddenly the door of her hut burst open and Braxx appeared.
“Forgive me for not clapping and asking entrance, Wise One.” His face was pale and strained—the right side, anyway. The left side looked like a frozen mask.
Frozen because of me. I’m the reason he can never be healed, Molly thought and felt a rush of guilt.
“I grant you my forgiveness, Braxx from the Sky.” The Wise One nodded regally. “What is it you must say so urgently?”
“Thank you, Wise One. Molly,” he said, looking at her. “I’ve just spoken to Commander Sylvan. Apparently the threat posed by the Hive has become exponentially more dangerous. The Mothership is recalling all outside personnel.”
“Really?” Molly’s heart sank. “But we just got here!”
“I know and I’m sorry. But…” he hesitated for a moment. “There’s something else. A message about your assistant.”
“About Denise? Is she okay?” Molly felt an icy finger of dread go down her spine. “What happened to her?”
“I believe she’s well,” Braxx said quickly. “But her intended mate is not.”
“Scott?” Molly jumped up from the place by the red crystal fire where she’d been sitting with the Wise One. “I thought he was getting better or I wouldn’t have left! Did he…is he dead?” she asked in a whisper.
“Not yet.” Braxx sounded grim. “But I fear he is not long for this world, at least, so said the message Commander Sylvan received. He said your assistant didn’t wish to worry you and asked that he hold the message until the end of your assignment. But since we are being recalled anyway, I thought—”
“Yes, thank you for telling me.” Molly ran a hand through her hair distractedly. “Oh, poor Denise—she and Scott are so in love! I have to get back to her—have to be with her and help her through this.” She turned to the Wise One. “I’m so sorry, Wise One—I wanted to stay and know the People. But now we have to go.”
“I understand, child. I always knew you would not be with us long.” The Wise One got up and enfolded her in a warm embrace. “Go and may the power of the Cha’llah light your way in dark places.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Molly sang, remembering Tal’ossi protocol one last time. “You’ve been so kind to me. I can never repay you.” She touched the crystal at her forehead. “Thank you for my sight, Wise One.”
“That was given to you by the will of the Cha’llah,” the older woman said calmly. “Use it wisely, Molly from the Stars.”
“I will.” Molly felt tears pricking her eyes and her new vision was suddenly blurry. She hugged the older woman back hard. “I’ll never forget you. And I will try to come back and finish getting to know the People if I can.”
The Wise One shook her head. “It is my feeling that we will never meet again but I will carry the memory of you in my heart always. Now go—your friend needs you badly. It is in my mind that you may yet save her grief.”
Molly didn’t see how that was possible—if Scott was dying or was already dead, Denise was going to be devastated. But having gone through the deep pain of loss herself, she knew she could at least be there to support her friend during her grieving.
“Let’s go,” she said to Braxx. “There’s no time to lose.”
He nodded shortly. “I already have the ship warmed up and Commander Sylvan is having the Mothership fold space for us as we speak. Come.”
Molly took one last look around the rustic little hut with its red crystal hearth, grass mats, and leaf-stuffed cushions and at the Wise One herself with her blue-gray skin and purple hair. She wanted to commit everything to memory because she too, had the feeling she wouldn’t be coming back.
Then she gave the Wise One a last hug and left. It was time to get back to Earth and see what she could do to help Denise.
* * * * *
The trip back was a silent one. Molly had gone to the back to change out of her negus and back into Earth clothes but now she seemed preoccupied with worries of her friend and Braxx really had nothing to say. Just as the Wise One had predicted she would never see them again, he had the same feeling about Molly—that once he took her back down to Earth and left her there, they would never meet again.
The thought made him feel like someone was carving out his heart with a dull knife. The idea of never seeing her sweet face, never holding her in his arms, never breathing in her sweet, fresh scent or tasting her lips ever again was torture. Worse than torture, it was…
Stop it, he told himself angrily. It’s for the best and you know it. She would never want to be seen with you now that she knows how you look. And even if she could look past your scars, as Danella was never able to do, do you really think she’d still want you if she knew about the inner scars you bear? If she knew what you did after the crash?
She couldn’t want him—no woman would—Braxx knew that well enough. So he kept his mouth shut and said nothing as he flew them through the rift in space and back to Earth. The usual protocol was to go back to the Mothership first for a debriefing on their mission but Commander Sylvan had given permission to delay that in light of what was happening to Molly’s assistant.
Braxx only spoke to her as they were breaching the atmosphere of Earth and the broad peninsula of the state of Florida was growing in the viewscreen.
“Where do you want me to take you?” he asked Molly, who had been tapping anxiously on her phone the moment they got within range.
“Denise says they’re still at Tampa General. She says… Oh dear.” Molly’s eyes were bright with tears as she read the text. “She says Scott is almost gone. Please, Braxx—can you hurry? I have to get to her!”
“I will fly as fast as my ship permits me to,” Braxx said gravely and added. “You are…a good friend.”
“I just wish I could spare her this grief.” Molly swiped at her eyes. “I know how awful it is to lose the people you love. I wish she didn’t have to feel that.”
“It is the worse feeling in the world,” Braxx acknowledged gravely. “Knowing that there is nothing you can do to save them. Realizing you will never see the one you love so dearly again.”
His words seemed to shake Molly out of her worry and preoccupation for a moment. She looked up at him, her eyes wide.
“Braxx,” she began. “We really need to talk. I think—”
“We are here.” He sat the little ship down neatly right in front of the entrance to the hospital. “Hadn’t you better go to your friend?”
“I will but…will you be here when I get back?”
“Negative,” Braxx said blandly. “I must get back to the Mothership and report to Commander Sylvan. He gave permission for you to delay your debriefing but he said nothing about mine.”
“But—” Her lovely face was troubled even though she already had her door halfway open, ready to get out.
“Goodbye, Molly.” Relenting a little, Braxx leaned across the seat and cupped her smooth cheek gently in one hand. “I’ll never forget you,” he said softly. “Now go—your friend needs you.”
Tears glimmered in her eyes but at last she turned to go. Braxx watched her hurry into the hospital and thought his heart might burst.
Not for you, he told himself harshly. She’s not for you and she never was.
It was time to go back to the Mothership. Time to get on with his life.
Alone.