NOVEL NEXT 96: Dangerous Secrets
"All Love and All Things"
I heard you on the breeze.
Just like always.
I feel how near you are.
You are all love and all things.
You find in me the music
Then find what you look for.
Promises made
And promises kept.
I heard you on the breeze.
Just like always.
I always knew your voice.
I've always heard your song.
I'll hear you for all eternity.
We'll sing together for always.
I heard you on the breeze.
Just like always.
I feel how near you are.
You are all love and all things.
We'll sing together for always.
You are all love and all things.
All love and all things!
- Ren Crieve, 2737
NAYTH
"No, Freya. I changed my mind. I'm teaching my wife the Bride and Groom dance. No discussion. Dad can teach her the others. I'm dancing the Bride and Groom dance with my wife, and no one else is."
She gave up. "Fine, Iqui."
"Is that Freya?!" Ren screeched. I closed the video so Freya wouldn't see that we had two additional guests. Rahel had just brought them home and down to the dojo.
I thought I was going to burst as I jumped up off the dojo floor and grabbed both men to me. "Come here, you Shurwin devils! ARRRGHHHHH. I am going to smother you, so get ready for it."
I didn't let them go. I wasn't going to. Apparently they weren't going to either. Madrano broke first. I grinned at him. He did it on purpose.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
"Come on, come on. Let's set up," Ren instructed. "I can't wait to see Ryst. Hurry up. Zap everything, Pey'o."
My mouth dropped open as equipment started flying around the room. Well, audiovisual equipment. The violin case, flute, and three other cases just stayed parked on the floater as Madrano smirked at me.
"You bastard, Peydran. Clouds, Ryst is keeping secrets! Holy hells, man."
"Yeah, right after surgery. Everything wireless I want to. Only Ryst and Ren know. That's the basics."
"Right. I forgot already." I knew way too many people's secrets now. Secrets were coming out of the woodwork. Dangerous secrets. A frightening confluence of secrets all right here at LaGrange.
Ryst was right. Whatever this was shaping up to be, it was so big it could break the 9 Galaxies. I suddenly felt small. Tiny. Miniscule.
We were all together now. Borden and Annika working on the sidelines. Peydran and Ren here now in LaGrange. And Ryst.
"I just pinged Ryst's pad telling her to get down to the dojo right now," Peydran said.
I felt her coming. She was scared. "Strintch! Peydran, you scared her!"
I ran out the door and met her in the stairway. She was throwing off waves of confusion. "I'm fine, Ryst. I'm so much more than fine! Come on, I have the best surprise for you!"
I wrapped my right arm around her waist, and we sprinted into the dojo. I felt her heart soar as she ran in and grabbed her best friends, all three of them falling into a pile on the floor. She didn't even try to not cry. She laughed and let the tears fall.
Music started pouring out of the equipment that was hovering all over the dojo. Ren jumped up. Peydran pulled Ryst up as music pumped out of the speakers.
"I heard you on the breeze," Ren and I sang out. Peydran pulled Ren to him, and Ryst melded against me.
The four of us danced in the dojo to a song sent from heaven. Beautiful, and happy, and full of life, love, and loyalty. We danced with the song on repeat.
The third time through, Ryst added her alto. The fourth time through, Peydran slid an arm around Ryst's waist and handed Ren to me.
Ren was made of music, and he flowed like it. We looked in each others' eyes as we sang in harmony, hip to hip, voice to voice, and full of love and all good things.
Peydran stopped the music after that, and the four of us hugged and promised we'd never let go.
RYST
"Thanks for getting them here, Nayth."
He smiled. This was Nayth's favorite thing in the world: he was lying on his back, smiling with his eyes closed. He liked it when I kissed him after we made love, especially tender, slow kisses. And me running my fingers over his skin and pressing my lips against his chin and shoulders.
My Ahtah loved it when I treated him like he was a priceless art sculpture made of glass. He loved me showering affection on him.
I had just figured out a minute ago that this position was the best— straddling him, on his pelvis, with my knees bent under me and his hands on my thighs. He wanted to stay this way forever. I wanted to let him. I was filled with him and his happiness.
He didn't need to tell me that he felt content now that Ren and Peydran were in the apartment down the hall. He didn't know why, but he knew that they had to be here.
He hadn't told me he was aggravated while they'd been flying here. I'd thought he was aggravated about Borden wanting to know if I could see his future— as if I was a vending machine of destinies or something.
But no, Nayth had been restless because he knew Ren and Peydran had to come. Now that they were here, everything was in place. That was a certainty for Nayth. The uncertain things were all up to me.
So I could sit here, and know that he was certain while I was a tangle of uncertainty.
Except for this: Love was certain. Love beneath me, within me, and surrounding me.
I pushed a question to him, and his eyes opened lazily. "The future, Methela?" he chuckled.
"You're uncertain? Can't you tell that I'm coming with you to Shurwinn and staying there forever? I'll have to come back, sure, for Ministry meetings. But we can come back just a few months out of every year. You'll come, won't you? I don't want to be away from you ever again."
I could feel how sick that thought made him. It wasn't just him feeling that way; it was both of us.
"I'll come back with you, Nayth. My life is really simple, though. I just have a casita— a tiny house." He caught the image of it in my mind.
"I'll love your house— our casita— as much as you do, Ryst. It's ours. You built it for us. We already have a king-sized bed there. I don't need anything other than you to be happy."
"So, we get married. We live in Shurwinn. What else?" I asked.
"Kids?" he suggested. "I used to think a whole bunch. But I think I'm happy with things the way they are, unless we change our minds. You, Ryst?"
"I always thought two, maybe a third. What do you think?"
He nodded and shifted under me, settling me against him. "Come here and kiss me some more."
I did, tenderly, just the way he liked it. Just the way I liked it. The way we liked it.