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: 2914958" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 336“You’re sure about this?” Marix asked quietly as she and Jyren looked out the viewport in Loki’s cockpit. In front of them, once again, was the large ring that guarded the entrance to Alraxian space. They had contacted the Knights that guarded the border and were told the shield would be taken down in the next few minutes.    Jyren sat forward in his usual seat to her left and peered out at the thing. After a moment, he turned to look her direction through the fringe of his hair that came over a good portion of the right side of his face, “Of course I am.”    She nodded and also leaned forward some, stretching slightly in the process. There was a slight pop sound from her back, and a cringe appeared on her face. That actually got a grin from Jyren, but her expression quickly became a sharp glare. No words were actually exchanged on that matter, even through the link. However, she did speak up after a few more seconds again, “This isn’t exactly going off for another adventure, Jyren.”    This time, he turned to face her completely, reaching up to brush the fringe out of his face so he could look at her more clearly, “I know. Really, though, do you think I’d let you go off on your own? Besides...it will be nice to have a break. I know I didn’t expect to come back so soon, but we’ve done what needed to be done...tied up all the loose ends on this side of the galaxy. We might as well clean up the mess we left back home.”    Home.    He’d said it before, but Marix could feel that he really meant it this time. She allowed herself a smile before reaching over to rest a hand on his, “You going to survive the formalities and the politics we’re going to be stuck dealing with?”    “We?” Jyren grinned and squeezed her hand, “You’re the Empress, remember? I get to sit back while you do all the work. The real question is, are you going to survive?”    “I did before,” Marix returned the grin and glanced towards the ring again, “And don’t think you’re completely off the hook. There’s no way I’m going to do all the work when you’re a perfectly good scapegoat for the grunt work.”    Jyren’s eyes went wide at that, though, for once, it was easy for Marix to detect the sarcasm, “Grunt work? I’m sorry, Shady, but Emperors don’t do grunt work.”    Getting her hand free of his, she poked him in the chest, “When I’m in charge they do.”    Out of no where, Jyren suddenly snatched her hand and tried to yank her across the cockpit to him. Thanks to the fact that Shadow was pretty much always ready for some kind of ‘attack’, it proved to be more difficult than he had expected...and ended up with her lurching halfway across the cockpit with a yelp, only to cut off Jyren’s laugh by pulling back. In a blur, he found himself face up on the deck between the two seats in the cockpit, looking up at Marix as she still hung slightly off of the side of her seat.    “That wasn’t funny,” Marix said through a very large grin.    Jyren’s face looked pretty much the same, except for a bit more surprise that he was now on the deck instead of in his seat, “You never let me have any fun, anymore.”    “None at all,” she agreed after finally letting go of his arm and allowing him to get back into the co-pilot’s chair.    After plopping back down and leaning all the way back, he glanced over to her and asked, “Is it going to be like last time? Or will we at least have a little peace and between all those damned formalities?”    Marix bit her lip and also leaned back, “It will be...much the same at first, I expect. I don’t think anyone expected either of us back so quickly. But afterwards things should...should calm down a little. I just hope the situation with the Mrrakesh can stay as calm as it is...”    “You and me both,” Jyren agreed with a nod, “I’ve seen what their ships can do and that was enough.”    The subject itself brought a somewhat tense silence to the cockpit. Jyren’s attention was still on Marix, and while that wasn’t all that out of the ordinary, it still made her a bit jumpy when he stared at her like that...not that she didn’t do the same to him a good amount of the time. That, of course, was not the point. The point was it was unnerving, yet at the same time she couldn’t bring herself to say a damned thing about it.    [The shield is down.] Loki’s ‘voice’ echoed in their minds for a long time before either of them actually reacted to it.    Marix was the first to, and she quickly sat up straight and looked to see that the blueish glow that usually sat in the center of the thing had faded. The path was clear now. As she reached down to rest her hands on the controls, Marix’s eyes turned back to where Jyren sat, “Last chance. There’s not going to be any turning back after we do this...”    “Your last chance, too,” Jyren said, sitting up and looking carefully out at the empty blackness that now inhabited the center of the ring.    The words actually hit her fairly strongly, and caused her to hesitate for a long minute. Then, shaking herself out of it, Marix whispered, “They need me. They need us...” trailing of a moment, she once again looked over to Jyren, “This isn’t something we can just avoid. There is a Council and changes are coming, but that means that need their Empress even more. Even if the position loses its power...they’ll need me. Some stability to look to and know that the Empire is safe...that they are safe.”    Jyren nodded slowly, reaching over again and resting his hand on hers, half holding the controls as she did, “Then we’ll be there and do that.”    For a long time, they sat in silence again, and once again, Marix seemed to be actually afraid of going anywhere. Quietly still, she asked, “You’re really sure about this?”    Suddenly, Jyren was very glad that the seats were able to move around the cockpit fairly freely. It allowed him to slide right over to her without any trouble. Carefully, and knowing it was still slightly unnerving for her, Jyren brought his other hand up and rested it on her cheek while looking her straight in the eyes, “I’ll follow you anywhere.”    The words were simple, and truthful, but there was so much more in them that Marix found through the link. All of the feelings and thoughts that went along with the simple words flowed through at the same time, and she knew exactly what he meant, and exactly how serious he was when he said it. A smile again returned to her face, and she gently rubbed her cheek against his hand a moment before opening her mouth to say something and finding herself unable to say anything at all. When she realized this, though, Marix didn’t just sit there like an idiot as Jyren seemingly enjoyed doing, but just nodded instead.    In another few minutes, Loki made the jump to hyperspace...straight to Alraxia.</blockquote>

Verification