Mid Afternoon
The portal opened and as we held the cheering crowd back, Lady Catherina and her four personal guards stepped through and disappeared. The moment they were gone, we allowed our perimeter to collapse in an orderly manner as we stepped through the portal. I was one of the last four to step through and return to the palace. I was on the tip of the spear, a member of the group that was first to arrive and last to leave.
We stepped into the receiving room of the palace. My duty rotation was now complete and I could leave and return home. I had three days off before I rotated back to the palace as part of the security detail for our Lady.
“Tokalas!” Lady Catherina called from the side. “You’re dismissed,” she said with a nod to her personal guards. They dipped their heads and pivoted before leaving her side. Once in the palace their duty to her was discharged unless there was an emergency or she asked for their assistance.
I approached and dipped my head. “Yes, my Lady?”
“How are you? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“I’m fine, my Lady.”
“Catherina,” she corrected.
“Catherina,” I repeated.
The exchange had almost become a game with us. I had been part of her personal guard almost since the beginning and we’d become friends. When she’d bonded with our Lord, I’d begun calling her by her title, as was her right and tradition, but she’d asked me to continue to call her by her name. I had, while in private, but now that I was no longer her weak side, I’d reverted back to my Lady until she asked me to call her by her name.
“How’s Henmop?”
I smiled. Catherina had, to use her term, ‘fixed me up’ with Henmop, a Peragin. Henmop was the reason I was no long at Catherina’s weak side. The Lord and Lady’s personal guard were stationed and lived at the palace. They were on duty twenty-eight hours a day, eight days a week. I had thrived on challenge and honor of keeping our Lady safe, but now I had discovered something I wanted more than the honor or being our Lady’s weak side.
“She’s well, Catherina. She asks about you often.”
She smiled. “Walk with me.” She led me out of the receiving room, the most heavily guarded room in the palace, so that we could have a bit of privacy. “You should bring her to visit sometime.”
I smiled. “Of course.” I’m sure Henmop would be delighted to visit, but it didn’t matter if she wanted to visit or not. If the Lady of Firaspatciti suggested you visit, you visited. “As I recall, you expressed an interest in visiting Peraginisis. Perhaps you could be our guest.”
She sighed. “I’d love to, but there is so much going on it’s difficult to get away.”
“Catherina, you are our Lady. While my home is very modest compared to the palace, if you wish to visit, no one can tell you can’t, except our Lord.”
She grinned broadly. “Which is exactly what appeals to me, Tokalas. I’d like to be just Catherina again, even if for only a few hours, and get away from all of this.”
“You’re always welcome at my home.”
“Thank you, Tokalas. I mean it. I may take you up on it some time. I’d really like to see Peraginisis with my own eyes and see if it reminds me as much of Scotland in person as it does in the storage cubes.”
“It is much different than Firaspatciti, but I’m beginning to see the beauty of the land.”
“It does look very beautiful. Are you cycling onto or off duty?”
“Off.”
“Then I won’t keep you. Do bring Henmop for a visit.”
“Yes, my Lady. What day?”
She looked at me with that way she had. “It’s not an order from ‘my Lady.’ It’s a request from Catherina, your friend. Since I fixed you two up, I have a personal interest in you both. Talk to Henmop and find out when she’s available, then we can work something out, okay?”
I dipped my head. “I will bring suggested dates when I rotate back on duty.”
She smiled. “That’s all I ask. Thank you. I get so tired of everyone tip-toeing around me. Only you, Peval, and Stevan can seem to relax around me. That’s why I like Quathaul so much. She doesn’t treat me any different now than she did when I was that terrified little girl almost three years ago. I can feel that in Henmop. She’s not impressed with all this ‘my Lady’ bullshit, and I like that.”
“Yes, my Lady,” I said and then smiled at the look she gave me.
“Go,” she said, making shooing motions with her hands. “Your mate is waiting on you.”
“Unlikely. She’s in much demand. Her reputation is spreading quickly and she travels more and more now.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
I dipped my head. “In some ways. She’s pleased when others ask for her help, and helping the animals pleases her a great deal. But sometimes we only see each other for a few hours in the evening, or not at all.”
“That’s too bad.”
I smiled. “Yes, but after an absence it’s very pleasant. It reminds me of how much I care for her.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“An Earth saying?”
“Yes.”
“That makes it no less true on Firaspatciti or Peraginisis. You Humans seem to have a keen insight into such matters.”
“Nah,” she said with a broad smile. “We’re just horny all the time.”
I blinked in confusion. “Horny? You have horns?”
She giggled. “No, silly! It means we’re lustful. I forgot you haven’t learned all the Earth slang like Stevan has.”
“Ah,” I said. Human speech was riddled with words that meant more than one thing, and their alternate meanings weren’t always clear from context.
“I think the term comes from males having an erection. They grow a ‘horn’ when they’re sexually excited. So they’re horny.”
“I understand,” I said as I shook my head indicating I didn’t.
She laughed in delight. “I know. We humans are confusing. Stevan tells me that all the time.”
“Our Lord is very wise,” I said, keeping my voice neutral.
She twittered out another laugh. “And patient. I won’t keep you, Tokalas. I’m sure you want to get home to Henmop.”
“It’s always my pleasure to speak with you, my Lady.”
She smiled at me. “Same here. Dismissed.”
I dipped my head in respect, took one step back, then pivoted and walked back to the receiving room. I really did enjoy speaking with Catherina, but I was anxious to return home. I’d only seen Henmop briefly before I’d left for my duty cycle and, as Catherina had said, my absence these past thirty-two hours had ‘made my heart grow fonder.’ Henmop knew my schedule on the guard was irregular. Sometimes, like today, I was on Lady Catherina’s security detail off planet when my duty cycle ended and I had to serve until she was safely back in the palace or another detail arrived to take over security.
“Peragin, code 1684.7142 mark 7235.4701,” I informed the portal tech, giving him the location of the house I shared with Henmop.
An instant later, the portal opened and I could see the main room of my house. Portals were one way gates and even if Henmop had been in the room, she wouldn’t have known I was arriving until I stepped through the tunnel and into my home.
“Thank you,” I said as I walked to the portal and stepped through. The trip across 8,457 light years was as quick and uneventful as stepping from one room to another in my own home.