Chapter Twenty One — Part 3

They came and woke me on many occasions, asking me questions that I hardly remember answering. Then, after Eohl threatened to punch the King, Reed sealed the colony from visitors, and I finally got some serious sleep. I don’t remember waking up for a long time, but when I finally did, Eohl was gone. I could make out my surroundings. I was crouched forward, in a cushioned chair. I felt a little stronger. I held my head up and looked around.

I could see the sky through a massive, dull glass barrier. The ground below looked like three feet of darkened amber. Hexagonal pillars of stone rose up to meet that single piece of once molten glass. On a hexagonal table set near my good arm, the new silver wire crown Eohl had been working on glistened beautifully in the light. Only this crown had three small, bright green emeralds set right in the center of it.

“Where am I?” I asked.

Reed answered me in galactic standard. “You’re in the new Central’s chamber. My home.”

“There are no Incubators here,” I said, surprised.

“I thought you might find them displeasing. Besides, I’ve scattered the incubators around the main colony, so that there will never again be a threat of complete colonial decay, as was caused by the Great Impact. There is somebody who’s waited for you to wake up, a Forever Child named Jupe. He wants to ask you something. He’s lost his voice, but we’re working on restoring it to him.”

Jupe looked out shyly from behind the Central. “I’m here now, the world is healed.” He played on his flute. “I want to stay.”

“This is your home. You are their child.” I said.

Reed translated, I don’t think he would have understood me otherwise. He ran away, happy with the answer, playing his flute as he ran down the hall.

With Jupe gone, I had Reed’s attention once more. “How long has it been? It must have taken a long time to build this new colony.”

“Been two months. You were very close to dying when you came back from your fight with Wastik, now you’re very close to being fully healed.” Reed set a sensor pad on my hand, retracting his claws. He seemed pleased with the information it gave him. “We were all worried about you. Eohl paced endlessly through the Hive, and I diverted as many resources as were needed to keep you safe and alive.”

I lay my head back, looking up through the glass. “How did you make a single piece of glass that big?” I asked. It spanned a quarter mile in every direction from me, and looked to be a hundred feet thick.

“We didn’t. It’s the crater from the asteroid impact. The heat of the asteroid melted a layer of dirt into glass. We did a scan of it, determined it was stronger than our stone ceilings, and saved ourselves years of restoration work by adapting it to our new home.

“The Medic class was very professional in healing you. Your wing isn’t fully recovered, nor is your arm, but the bones are mended. We were going to wait until tomorrow to take your sling and wing bandage off, but if you promise to be very careful, we can take it off a day early.”

“Believe me,” I said, “I am in no condition to do much of anything.”

The bandages came off, and I flexed my arm and wing, working the tight tendons out with slow and careful consideration for the pain it caused. I had finished putting my bodysuit on and was just putting my wedding crown back on my head when Eohl rushed in to greet me. He held my hands, and the Central Reed left us to talk alone.

“Hello. I missed you I love you.” He said in one great huff of excitement.

“Fill me in. What happened while I was away?”

“Earth is safe, the Elves are home. Though Otherspace has been somewhat restored, the angels have left it for Realspace. The angels are now citizens of Isastan. Of course you have the honor of being the King’s youngest daughter, as well as a hero. What’s best is there’s peace between the Elves, humans, and the Scandivats.