Chapter 4
TRUO SEEDUON, SECOND COMMAND
There was much to do. There was much to think about. There was much to plan. The human female Vera had given me information after I had given her information. It was a good exchange. She wanted to know about her husband's death, and against all sense, I told her. It broke her.
I held her in my arms, and holding her and consoling her once again gave me that feeling. I felt full of desire and lust for this human female as I held her against my scales and inhaled her scent. It was hard to restrain myself. I wanted to press my lips against hers as they quivered. I wanted to run my hand through her long brown hair and to press my hands against her body. But I did not. Instead, I simply held her, and she cried and grieved over the information about her husband.
But it was her information that had me thinking about the leader, Cyro. He was not able to procreate. Our entire tribe of Corillion assumed that the human female Vera was with offspring, the offspring of our leader. But what kind of leader could not create offspring? This was not good. This was not good for our tribe, and it was not good for Vera.
This was why he wanted me to bring him a second human female. When he said that she was a disappointment, I thought it meant simply because she was not loving him back, not because she was not producing offspring. If I brought him a second human and he impregnated her, then he would kill Vera. I could not allow that to happen.
But if I brought a second human and he could not impregnate her either, then he would kill both of them and continue to find human females, never admitting that the fault was his. This gave me new hope. This gave me the hope that I had been looking for, and what I had dared not think about doing before. But too much had happened; Cyro was not a good ruler. He was putting the entire tribe of Corillion on this asteroid in jeopardy. Now he was not able to create offspring and that was enough. It was all that I needed to proceed with a plan that I had been thinking about for very long time.
The next evening at ten, after the fortress had quieted down, we met for the first time. Not the human female Vera, but two other Corillion alien warriors of high-ranking birth met with me in the underground passageway in a secret room with a table and a bench.
"But are you sure, Truo? What if you're wrong? What if we do this and you were wrong about all of it? We will all be put to death," Sitione said.
"We are all dying anyway, are we not?” I said in response to him.
"How do you know of this? How do you know that Cyro is not capable of creating offspring? You have not shared that information with us,” Jin said.
"You must trust me, warrior brothers. I cannot reveal my source for it would put them in great danger. We already know that Cyro has turned out to be a leader that cannot lead us. I am ready to take his place. I am just. I am honorable. I put the Corillion way above all else. You know this of me, brothers, or you would not be here with me now. You would not be here to listen to a plan to overthrow his leadership,” I said to them.
"Yes, that is true. But it is a very big risk to expose ourselves in such a way. If we try and fail?” Jin said.
"Then we will be no worse off than we are now. None of us have mated. I am on my 21-year mark; Jin, you and Sitione are months away from your 22-year mark. Death is already upon you; there will be no difference,” I said to them.
They were quiet for quite some time as they thought this over. Then they spoke. “I am with you,” Jin said.
"I am with you as well,” Sitione added.
"Then we will reconvene in a week’s time. Give me this time to come up with a plan. Now you must go before our meeting is found out,” I said to them, rushing them off. But I wasn't rushing them off simply because it was risky to meet like this, but because I knew that Vera would be coming soon. I did not want her to find me having a secret meeting about overthrowing Cyro. She would not understand. It was nothing to burden her with. She already had so much of a burden on her shoulders dealing with the death of her husband and being forced to be with a Corillion that she despised.
After Jin and Sitione had left I waited. I waited, and I waited. I was growing nervous, which surprised me. I had grown used to meeting with Vera. I looked forward to it. She was a ray of sun in my night. I could not wait to see her again. Being with her started to give me comfort in a way that I had not expected. In comforting her in her grief, I had found new meaning in my life. Suddenly my existence and the existence of the Corillion tribe was not the only thing to think of. I found myself thinking of Vera often. This thinking had gone past her physical features and was more about her sorrow and grief. I felt a need to avenge her sorrow and her husband's wrongful death.
I waited longer, and midnight came and went. She did not show. I was disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing her face again. Then I began to worry. What if Cyro found out that she was sneaking down to see me? He would punish her brutally. I knew that it was risky for me to check on her, but I had to. I would not be able to sleep unless I knew that she was fine.
I stealthily made my way out of the underground passage and into the courtyard outside her bedroom chamber window, because I could not go to her door. That would be too risky. If anyone found me in the hall outside her door, it would be too obvious. It was easier for her to risk going down the stairs to the passageway because if she was found in the halls alone, no one would think anything of it other than perhaps she was coming back from the kitchen or from Cyro’s chambers. But I had no reason to be in the vicinity of her bedroom chamber.
I looked up at her bedroom window and saw the glow of light. I climbed the wall. I was quiet as I grabbed onto the stones that stuck out of the wall, providing a perfect ledge for my hands and feet. I climbed high and ducked under her window. Then I heard voices.
"When will you not be sick with this human illness? I must know,” Cyro’s voice boomed at her. It was clear that he was angry.
"I told you it is anywhere from two to three weeks for this virus to go through me. I have no control over it."
“But you have not been eating! My warriors tell me that you send the tray of food back full! How will you get better if you are not eating?” he shouted at her.
"I have not had an appetite for food,” she said weakly.
I peeked into the room to see Cyro shouting at her from the hallway outside her door. He was not in her room. He had a snarl on his face. He was very angry. It took all of my restraint not to jump into the window and defend her. It took all of me to not fight Cyro right then and there. He was looking at Vera as though he was ready to kill her, and that brought a deep rage out of me.
"You will eat! You will get rid of this sickness so that I may return to your bed and so that you may give me the offspring I deserve!” he shouted as he slammed the door and left.
I watched as Vera threw herself on the bed and cried. My heart reached out to her. I wanted to be there to console her. I wanted to be there to beat Cyro for her. What was happening to me? These desires had never filled me before; why now?
I slowly climbed down the wall, careful not to make a sound. I did not want Vera to know that I had seen what I had seen. I finally reached the ground and quickly moved across the courtyard back toward the east wing of the fortress where I stayed. I needed to put as much space as I could between Cyro and me or I would hurt him.
I needed to put as much space as I could between Vera and me or I would go to her.
There was much to be done. There was much planning to do. For how did one overthrow the leader of a Corillion tribe successfully? It had never been done. Yet, seeing the way he treated Vera gave me all the motivation that I needed to start planning. It was going to be dangerous.