Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2208164" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 207: No RegretsHours passed uneventfully as the trip to the Capital world continued. But, finally, it came to an end. They were ushered to a large, open section of the ship just before exiting hyperspace so that a the planet below could be seen. When the blue of hyperspace faded, not far away, hanging in the star pocketed blackness of space was a planet, not at all unlike Alraxia. Soft greens and blues rolled across it, and as they got closer, Jyren noticed that there seemed to be more greens than blues, which mostly looked like rivers more than oceans.    In a few more minutes, they were skimming through the atmosphere of the planet, and Jyren watched a distant white approaching. It grew to the point that he realized that the...city they were approaching was probably at least five times the size of the Alraxian Palace. The pearl white city consisted of flowery towers, domes, and walkways that crisscrossed the multiple levels. It was like a miniature, pearly coloured Coruscant.    Jyren was so caught up in looking over the hundreds of different shaped buildings and towers that he almost missed the one they were approaching. It was the centerpiece, and looked almost exactly like the Palace, simply transplanted in the middle of this insane mass of structures. By the time they were over it and the ship was setting down, he could no longer see anything but white in all directions except for up, and even then it was hard to see very far due to the density.    When the ship had finally set down, they all were ushered out and to a large delegation of guards and other Alraxians. But as they were pushed into the all too familiar looking interior hallways Shadow and her mother went off one direction, with Cole staying behind and speaking with some other Alraxians, and Jyren found himself and his father going the other way. He managed to be polite enough to just go along with it until the guards and other people disappeared, leaving he and his father in a room that resembled a living space.    “Where’d Shadow go?” he asked it fairly quickly as his father had a seat in a large chair.    “To get prepared, I would expect,” Navik motioned for his son to have a seat in another of the chairs.    Jyren did after pacing for a moment, then looked down at the elaborately decorated carpet lining the floor, “So what exactly is going on? She never really told me...”    Navik leaned back in the chair and answered his son fairly quickly, “It is a celebration for ah...the two of you.”    Before his father could say anything else, though, Jyren turned to regard the older Alraxian with a dangerous look. But his father just laughed quietly and went on, “Don’t blame me, son, you’re the one who asked the question. Besides, I don’t know why you’re so touchy whenever anyone says anything about her. There’s nothing wrong with it. Its not like you could have done better.”    “What’s that supposed to mean?!” Jyren nearly yelped, his claws digging into the chair’s arms very slightly out of reflex more than anything.    His father just pointed, “That’s exactly my point, son. Every time anyone says anything about her you go crazy. Just calm down...we aren’t going to criticize eitherof you. Despite what some may say about royalty, they still deserve a choice, and you should be glad for that.”    Slowly, his father’s words started to actually make sense. Which was a problem. Jyren, now a deep shade of crimson, stared down at the floor and mumbled, “There’s nothing like that. It was all an accident. You all just assume too much.”    “Oh, we do...?” Navik fought to keep the smile off of his face, “You sound like I did twenty five years ago.”    For some odd reason, that got Jyren’s attention and he looked up to meet his father’s gaze, “What happened then?”    Navik smiled then, “I met your mother for the first time.”    Jyren growled and furiously turned away again, more annoyed at himself for openly walking into that than anything else. It was like he couldn’t think straight anymore! And it wasn’t fair! When he grumbled the same excuses again, his father scoffed at them.    “Come now, Jyren, if we’re all assuming so much why do you keep feeding us things to assume about?” his father was not sounding anything other than honest, and that was why Jyren did try to find something to throw at the older Alraxian. He looked up again with a questioning glance, and his father just rolled his eyes, “You know exactly what I’m talking about, son! If we’re assuming too much then why are you so defensive about it? Why was she clinging to you the entire flight here? What about that child, hm? And really, I suppose the best question is, why did you kiss her?”    Silence. Silence in which Jyren became so warm that it was amazing the chair didn’t burn under him. Jyren tried to speak something to defend himself, but only incomprehensible noises escaped. This lasted for a few minutes before his father got up and walked over to him. Calmly, the older Alraxian knelt down in front of his son and reached up to rest a hand on the young man’s face.    Looking his son in the eyes, Navik said quietly, “Its alright, Jyren, you don’t have to defend yourself to me. I trust you. I can’t not trust you. Not now that I can see you here. Just, please Jyren, understand that no matter what you do, I will always be proud of you. And so will your mother. But don’t you ever, ever be ashamed of your choices. And don’t ever have any regrets about what could have been or what should have been...alright?”    Another short silence before Jyren slowly nodded. His father was right. So very right. All his life, Jyren had been dragging himself down with regrets. And here, in this corner of the galaxy hidden away from everything he thought he knew, it looked like all of those regrets were being undone. He had a family...he had a reason to keep going...he had...he had something he thought he’d lost.    But before he could say anything, his father smiled and pulled them both to their feet, “Come on, lets go get you ready for tonight. Its my job to do this diplomacy and dressing up, so I’m used to it...however, from the look on your face, I doubt you like it, so lets just get it over with fast and then you can enjoy the party, hm?”    Jyren simply nodded again, and his father then led him out of the room. It was going to be a long night. A very, very long night. And at the end of it...possibly a light.</blockquote>

Verification