Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

SHAH

"Well, now I kinda wish we'd gone home to see this!" Euri exclaimed at the video of my Dad growing a building right outta the ground behind the casita on Shurwinn.

I had to admit, it was impressive. I'd only seen my dad do parlor tricks. Shape little bits of stone into balls and that sort of thing, but nope! This time, he grew a replica of my virtual reality art into a real building behind Euri's casita. They were calling it "Ayela Arcana Sanctuary," and it was supposed to house all the Sibsil Creed memorabilia.

Okay, maybe "memorabilia" wasn't the right word. "Historical documents," maybe? All of their primary source material: Ryst's journals that I'd read, the electronic files, and her handmade book Within and Without: A Tindin Journey With Erotica. All the first-hand accounts that Euri's family had been gathering: the histories of his home world, Shurwinn, and the stories of people who'd known Ryst and Nayth Nova-Carmidee.

It was impressive, but that didn't mean I had to like it. Yeah, I was on team Sibsil. I mean, I was helping Euri write the animation for Eclipse Chasers of Yester Rear, the cartoon version of Ryst and Nayth's story. And entertaining the Known Cosmos with these humorous and erotically educational stories was all well and good, but I didn't like the idea of attracting Talented from all over the 9 Galaxies, luring them to Ayela Sanctuary with the true history of Shurwinn, and then giving them a home on Five Spheres.

Sigh. It was my parent's life-long vision, and they were finally seeing it come to fruition. But I still didn't think it was a good idea. Yeah, it had been cool meeting Muller, the albino telepath from Slourend Four. But he'd been right when he'd said it was best that we all forget each other's secrets. My mind wandered over to Ronnie who gave off the feeling of disagreement, but it was accompanied by that uncomfortable part of my twin's mind: the part that made me nauseous.

Ronnie was planning something. I could feel it, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was. Wry grin from my brother. Ronnie was always planning things. The nausea intensified. Stop that, Ronnie!

Wry laughter. If I didn't like it, I should stay away from his mind. But that was hard to do when I was thinking about us meeting another telepath and watching a video of our dad growing a building straight out of the ground.

The most beautiful building I'd ever seen. It was white and pearly, like moonstone, domed on the top, and round at the base, overlaid with sinewy designs, with arched doorways on the sides. It glowed in the early morning sun, and was surrounded by the quiet gardens of Euri's home.

"Is it weird to have that building right next to your house, Euri?" I asked.

""Nah, it's two acres away. Besides, it's so pretty! I mean, it's practically a sculpture. It's art, not a building!"

Euri was right. I'd never thought of my dad as an artist before. It sort of helped. Made what he was doing less intimidating, to think of him as a sculptor, not a freaky Talented who'd be taken away to a lab somewhere if his secret ever got out. Just having a video of this was dangerous. But, it looked fake, more like a movie than anything actually real.

It's your VR drawing, Shah, Ronnie reminded. And it was true. I'd drawn this building eight years ago in our virtual world when I'd first met Euri, and now my dad had sculpted it into reality.

It's a father-daughter original piece, then, isn't it? I laughed. That wasn't so bad. When it was art, it wasn't so overwhelming. It was just something beautiful, wasn't it? Something my dad and I had collaborated on. Something pretty to house precious memories of the first telepath Euri had known: his adopted Auntie who'd watched over him and who probably now whispered to him in the winds.

Is she speaking to you, Euri? Can you hear her on the wind? I asked.

His eyes closed, and I felt his mind questing out. A smile graced his face, and he overflowed with peace. I don't really have to hear her. I just feel how near she is. The wind is never far away.

The barest glimpse of a painting flitted through Ronnie's mind before he tucked it away, out of sight. I couldn't tell if it was one of his paintings, or something else, but I could feel the humor coming off of my brother. He had some personal joke about art and wind, and he was keeping it to himself. Typical.

Let's go to Mirtoux, Ronnie requested in our minds. There's an art gallery. A traveling collection of nature art: sculpture, paintings, and their local artisans have a festival four days from now. We can see the traveling collection and go to the festival.

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"I'm game," Euri replied. "How far? What direction?"

Fourteen hours.

"Okay, Ronnie. We'll just tuck in for a while on the Good Time. You set the course. I need to get back to writing anyway. Euri?"

"Yep, I've gotta finish episode five. I should be able to get that done, then I'll make dinner. Everyone cool with Nanna's veggie lasagna today?" Euri asked.

We all nodded and went our separate ways. I sat down to get to work on Rilla And Rawl book seven. It was going well. Rilla had settled into her new happily-partnered life, and had fallen in love with Lake Mavwin quite thoroughly. She'd invited him onto her starliner, and they spent their days traveling the stars, having adventures, and exploring sexy times beyond the stars.

But I needed another story arc. I needed Rawl's arc. Rawl, Rilla's best friend, was the one who believed in true love, but we were seven books in, and all Rawl had ever done was follow Rilla around the Cosmos. Yeah, he'd gone on a few dates, but nothing ever came of them because he was too busy sphere-hopping after Rilla. How was I gonna get Rawl to meet his one and only?

Ronnie was supposed to be my inspiration for Rawl, but Ronnie was so damned tight-lipped that he was no help at all! Wait? What about Muller, the telepathic spelunker from Slourend Four? Perfect! A telepath! That's what Ronnie needed! Someone who could understand him! An albino telepath and a nonverbal telepath— a match made in heaven!

I pushed an image of Muller into Ronnie's mind. He's kinda cute, isn't he Ronnie?

Ronnie slammed a mental door in my face. Ow.

Okay, match maker, I was not. Laughing, I got back to Rilla's story.

EURI

I watched Borden grow the Ayela Arcana Sanctuary out of the ground again. I couldn't stop watching it. It was amazing. It didn't look real; it looked like a fantasy show, but it was my backyard. Yeah, I was supposed to be finishing Eclipse Chasers of Yester Rear episode five, but I'd been stuck on it for weeks.

It was a bit boring, wasn't it? A cartoon about a couple's bonding hormones? Thirty minutes of them staring into each other's eyes adoringly? Snore. It was supposed to be erotica, but they were on a starliner hunting eclipses across Andromeda, for sand's sakes. Snooze fest.

Maybe they needed to land on a planet that had an infestation of giant lizards? Or get bitten by some venomous snakes? Or . . .hey! What about a cross-over episode with The Avenging Augment? My metal-handed dad was supposed to be writing the scripts for that show, so I popped him a text.

Euri: you got scripts for Avenging Aug?

Peydran: sent

I opened the file and skimmed the episode. It was shit.

Euri: What is this?

Peydran: You try writing action-adventure when your life is boring.

Maybe my dad needed some inspiring news. Should I tell him? Yeah, okay, I was gonna tell him. Make him work for it, though.

Euri: another one of dad's songs came true

Peydran: explain

Euri: Friend of the Wind

Buzz. Incoming video. I picked up. "Honey, honey! Euri has news!" Mets called out. I heard a saxophone cut off, and Muse's face appeared on screen.

"Hey Euri, how's the sphere-hopping life?" my musical dad asked.

"Forget that! Tell us about the song, Euri. What's going on?" Mets demanded.

I grinned at the video and said nothing.

"Oh, you figured it out, finally, did you?" Muse asked.

"Figured what out!?" Mets questioned.

I cackled.

"Ro, what is this? What is going on?" Mets asked again, turning to my other dad.

Muse sang, "Wind of Power, beyond all might, whisper your secret, reveal the light."

I wondered how long Muse had known? Before I was born? Or just today? My dad was like that, enigmatic sometimes. You never really knew what he understood and what he didn't. But he knew things, things I couldn't explain, and he probably couldn't explain them either. Who knows, maybe he was just pretending right now? I couldn't be sure.

So, I took pity on Mets and told them the story of crawling through the cave system of Sloulend Four's Cavern of Lights and calming the wind that had pelted my tour group with grit.

Muse just smiled like he'd always known, and Mets schooled his features as though he hadn't been sitting there with his jaw agape. "Well, it's not just Borden and his minerals then, is it? This is more than dreams and songs, Euri. That's a force of nature! The wind!"

"Pey'o," Muse chided, "we've been playing with the forces of nature for three decades. How is this such a big deal?" Nice, dad, make it seem like nothing. Keep going with that. . .

"Ro, yeah. Okay, there's mystical forces of eroticism. You're right. And there's the belly button, almost-telepathy connection, but that's different from telling the wind what to do! I mean, could Euri calm the oceans? Could he make it so ships could sail on Shurwinn? Or why? Why would a person have such a gift? What is it for? What does it mean?" Mets demanded.

"I do recall you saying once upon a time that some things have to be lived to be understood," was Muse's reply.

I had mercy on Mets and said, "Dad, I don't know what it's for, but three times since I took up with Portia and Ronnie I've felt Ryst or heard Nayth. They are either closer, or I'm closer to them. I don't know what is going on, but something is happening."

Mets sat back. "And now we have the Ayela Sanctuary built and ready. Things are coming together, but where is it all going?" He shook his head, then shook it again and sighed. "Yeah, Ren, you're right. We just have to keep living it to find out. Ah, so Euri, you didn't like my Avenging Augment episode?"

I laughed in his face. "Scrap it, Dad, and start over. It needs to be funny, not that crap about a programmer trying to spy on the government! How is hacking Ministry financials going to be interesting animation? I was hoping you had something good so I could do a cross-over episode with Crystal and Nathan. They're too boring in my bonding hormones episode. I need some conflict. Some adventure!"

Mets sat up. "A cross-over?" A huge smile lit his face. "Yes! It'll be me and Nayth and Ryst! That's perfect! Okay, what do we have? Who's the bad guy? Do we get to kill somebody? Hide them in the desert? Are we burying bodies? Is there a criminal on your starliner who needs to die?"

"How about monster-sized lizards with poisonous tongues on a planet called Aropis? You good with taking them down to protect Crystal?"

"Hell yeah! I'm gonna put down those Aropis baddies. New episode coming up. Give me a day or two, and I'll get it to you!"

Muse chimed in, "Oh, Euri, do take care with the wind. It can be volatile. Love you. Sunshine."

They waived goodbye.