This time the weather was terrible as Ankaht stood by her cairn where she had buried her memory box. She realized now why she'd chosen the spot. It reminded her of her father's house.
Who would have guessed, when she and Harrok had stood looking out over the sea and the mountains, and begun the enormous task of evacuating the People to another star, that she would have found this. Not just one new planet, but many and all of them with other creatures on them.
What an interesting conversation they would have once he reached rebirth again and grew to the age of reason. It was possible that he would be reborn as her son, though that was unlikely. She missed his support.
I wonder . . . I suppose he would believe that Illudor would have many more tentacles than just us. And I know he would have probably challenged Torhok before now.
She braced herself as the wind howled from the ocean, up the cliffs. It was such a beautiful planet. The rain would be on her soon, the dark vrel and herrm and green-gray clouds billowed up over the far shore, bright sparks of distant lightning connecting cloud and sky for microseconds. She told herself that she should go in, but the beauty and violence of the storm suited her mood suddenly and she waited for it.
Too many of the People are dying in this war. We should be bringing more people out of the interlife. I admit to selfishness—if we are not increasing it will put off the time when I will meet my parents in this life, again. Torhok and his Destolfi montu shilkiene is going to bring us disaster.
She was training hard, now. Not knowing whether she could challenge the senior admiral yet, but aiming for the day when she needed to. She could see it coming. That is the narmata of another time.
The sound of the thunder finally reached her hearing, a rumble that she could feel in the pounding sea on the cliffs below, the waves whipped up and running before the storm. She let her sulhaji of the situation go, let it get ripped away from her the way the wind whipped the breath away from her.
When I can, I will build a villa here, once we have a peaceful world again. We will stand on my terrace, that soul and I, and contemplate the shining vrel ocean.