"Are you well?"

"Just tired."

"I'm transmitting a message to Mansr. Our enemy figured out you're alive and on the planet. My reinforcements aren't here yet; you'll need to keep moving until I can neutralize the newest threat."

"No problem."

"What disturbs you?" His voice was softer.

"Just tired," she whispered. Tears gathered in her eyes.

"It is not like you to keep the truth from me."

"I, uh, I went to the fountain and figured out how to make it work. There's water now, A'Ran," she managed, struggling not to cry. "Mansr says there will be water as long as I'm on Anshan."

"Water," he said, an odd note in his voice. "He speaks the truth. As long as you are nishani, the planet will heal."

"And if I leave, everyone dies."

"It is the way of things, nishani." His voice was even, as if he tried to ease some of the weight of her decision.

"I couldn't live with myself if I left everyone to die," she said.

"We share the same burden," he said in a hushed voice. "My failure to protect my people should not be something another should bear."

She wiped her eyes.

"I will accept your decision, no matter which choice you make," he said.

"I don't know how you can say that," she returned, "when one means your people will be destroyed!"

"You must accept your place willingly. It is the natural way of things here."

"So you're obligated to give me the choice."

"Yes."

She closed her eyes, remembering how she'd felt in his arms: like she wasn't just another duty to him.

"I couldn't walk away from your planet any more than I could my own, if me staying means everyone lives," she whispered. "I must stay and do my … duty." She waited, expecting her words to please him.

"Very well." His tone didn't change, as if she'd just told him she was going shopping instead of sacrificing the rest of her life for his people. "Prepare yourself to move before the suns rise."

She turned off the communicator, not caring if he said anything else. Instead, she cried, feeling more alone than she had since leaving earth. She fell into a restless sleep that was disturbed long before dawn. Leyon's shake rattled her to her bones, and she pushed at him. He shone a light in her face before hauling her to her feet. She stumbled after him into the central area of the dwelling.




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