The room I was escorted into by a young A’li-uud was completely round and very dark. The ceiling was nothing more than a large glass dome, allowing an exquisite view of the abundant star-scene above, and the walls were of the same stone as the holding room in which I’d been kept. Eleven chairs more reminiscent of thrones than normal seats were placed in a perfect circle at exactly even increments from one another, and a tall torch with a bright, flickering flame was featured between each chair. At the very center of the room was a platform that looked like it could have served as a pit for a bonfire, but atop it, there was a sturdy piece of something akin to concrete. It was on this platform General Morgan and I were told to stand.

It was eerie to be in the middle of a strange room with white eyes on every side of me. It was even stranger to try and figure out which direction to face. That question was quickly answered, though, when an aged A’li-uud with hair longer than any I’d seen thus far said serenely, “Please bring Elder designate De’inde Et’Petrum Montem’tribus in, as well.”

I stopped breathing for a moment as the A’li-uud who’d brought me in left the chamber by way of a different door. I’d had no idea Dane was here as well, but the knowledge instantly alleviated my nerves. In their place, however, rose anger, bitter and hot on the back of my tongue.

General Morgan stood beside me. He was very tense, his muscles flexed, and his jaw jutted forward in such a way that it made his lower lip appear to be pouting. While we’d been waiting to be summoned, he’d made several attempts to speak to me, but I’d ignored each one. I had no interest in conversing with him, especially when he made it known he was the reason I’d been brought there in the first place.

After everything had gone black, I’d felt myself flying through the air the same way I did when Dane wind traveled with me. When I’d landed, the mask had been removed from my face, and I’d been brought into the holding room without explanation. Morgan was already there, but they took Lokos elsewhere, and I hadn’t heard about his whereabouts since. For what felt like many hours, I’d been left to sit in the stone room with the General and no explanation. Now that I was able to glance up at the transparent dome overhead, the velvety black sky made it evident I'd been kept waiting for nearly half the day.

Dane appeared through the doorway with the A’li-uud, but he shook the boy’s hand from his arm irritably. The moment our eyes met, Dane’s stern, Adonis face melted into an array of emotion, and my belly leaped with a powerful emotion of my own. I wanted to address him, but, as I flicked my gaze back to the elderly alien before me, my anger took over once again.

“The Council recognizes Elder designate De’inde Et’Petrum Montem’tribus,” he said, watching Dane step up onto the platform.

Dane wound his way past Morgan and stood steadily beside me. I felt his hand press into the small of my back, just as it had done before our tryst in my bedroom aboard the ship. Something sparked between my thighs, but I was seething too much to pay it much mind.

“Thank you for joining us tonight,” the A’li-uud continued. “I am Elder Vi’den—”

“Frankly,” I interrupted, practically spitting with anger, “I couldn’t care less about who you are.”

Dane’s hand tightened on my back, and I felt his fingernails digging into me. General Morgan looked at me with unconcealed surprise. I heard mutterings around the circle of Elders, and the one on the left of the A’li-uud called Vi’den spoke up.

“You are before the Council,” he said gravely. His voice was odd, almost bubbly and very difficult to understand. “You will address us with respect.”

“I will address you as you have treated me,” I snapped. “And that, I’m afraid, has been sorely lacking any semblance of respect.”

“Dane, I must ask that you keep your mate—” Vi’den began.

“Excuse me,” I said loudly, my voice rolling over his like a boulder. “First of all, Dane has as little authority over me as you do. Second, I am not his mate. Third, if I was, it wouldn’t be any of your business, and it would certainly be very inappropriate of you to mention it.”

“Quite the spitfire,” a voice murmured behind me. I twisted around to see the speaker and saw an A’li-uud seated beside Duke. He looked to be around Dane’s age, and he was wearing a grin of approval.

Vi’den made a noise in his throat, and I turned back around to look at him again. He had a very patient expression on his face, something I didn’t expect after witnessing the temperament of many other A’li-uud. “Perhaps, Roxanne Rigby, you would be most comfortable addressing the Council at your leisure. I believe we can forego Forum formalities for one evening,” he said calmly.

There were murmurings of disagreement around me, but I said graciously, “Thank you. I’m here to discuss establishing a peace treaty between Earth and Albaterra.”

“Yes,” Vi’den said, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. “General Morgan took it upon himself to request a meeting with us via a Montemban warrior regarding the treaty immediately. Hence why you were brought here rather unceremoniously and unexpectedly.”

I shot Morgan a nasty look, which he returned with one of his own, and said, “The Board of Universal Exploration and Operations has outlined terms we believe will be suitable for both parties, but we are, of course, open to your requests. I have—”

One of the Elders to my right began clacking, speaking A’li-uud. His eyes were pinned on Dane, who clacked back at him with an angry expression on his face.

“We will speak English, please,” Vi’den interrupted them. “It is rude to exclude our guests from pertinent discussion.”

I threw him a grateful look as the Elder who’d addressed Dane said in a harsh, gravelly voice, “I want to know why Dane took it upon himself to bring humans back without consulting the Council.”

“I had no means by which to consult the Council,” Dane replied sharply. “And I had to agree to bring them back, or I would have been unable to return at all.”

“Why?” the Elder asked, cocking his head, giving Dane a challenging glare.

Dane’s hand was now clawing at my back, and I wriggled slightly to loosen his hold. “I was being kept in a cell, presumably to prevent me from harming anyone,” he growled. “The humans would only agree to providing me a ship and allowing our warriors and me a safe return if we permitted the company of twelve human soldiers. And Roxanne.”

His answer was met with silence, but the Elder continued to glare at him. Vi’den motioned to me with one long-fingered hand. “You were saying?”

“Vi’den,” the same gravel-voiced Elder piped up again. “Are we really going to sit here and pretend to consider whatever the human has to offer us? There is nothing she can say that will change our minds, so why are we wasting our time?”

“You are ignorant!” I exploded before Vi’den could respond, rounding on the aggressive Elder. Dane’s arm caught around my waist, but I continued without pause. “You are ignorant and hateful, and you are nothing like the life-revering race you claim to be!”

What had been mutterings before now were blatant cries of outrage. Out of the corner of my eye, however, I could see the attractive A’li-uud beside Duke grinning broadly, leaning back in his chair like he was watching an enjoyable movie. Duke was not shouting as some of his peers were, but his mouth was tight and his eyes were unmoving.

“We will do what we must do to protect our people,” an Elder wearing a feathered hood said boldly.

“You are protecting your people from a non-existent threat,” I shot back at him. “You are making decisions out of fear, not out of logic and reason borne of hard evidence.”

“How can you pass judgment on our decisions?” asked the bubble-voiced Elder next to Vi’den. “Time and time again, the human race has taken preemptive action with catastrophic consequences with the intent of preventing greater and irredeemable catastrophe. Your cities have been bombed, international wars begun, all in the name of defense. The human sense of self-preservation is as assumptive and lethal as anything we plan to do.”

“Not every human is like that,” I said stubbornly. “I’m not.”

Silence fell across the chamber, bathing me as thoroughly as the glow from the torches. Dane’s fingers gripped my side so tightly I could feel imprints forming on my skin, and he was barely breathing. General Morgan stood stupidly in place, scratching his head and looking between each speaker like it was a boxing match.

“Are you proposing we stand by and allow the worst to happen?” Vi’den asked quietly, breaking the silence with his soft voice.

“I don’t know what you think is going to happen, but I’m pretty sure anything that happens will be at your hand,” I replied coolly. “But, to answer your question, no. I’m just asking you not to punish everyone for the evils of some.”