8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Iris

After the food in front of them had dwindled, Damascus addressed the Delorta. "I have something for you."

All eyes at their table swung to him as he handed the bag he'd been holding outside the galley to Dek-lee.

Dek-lee accepted it reluctantly. "I'm a slave. That means you've gifted this to Iris, not me."

"No, Dek-lee!" Iris objected. "What's given to you by anyone is yours to keep."

They didn't look convinced and continued to hold the bulky bag in the air over the table. Damascus sounded the swarm-of-wasps rattle of irritation.

"You need to take it because by giving this gift, I'll add weight to my soul," he said. "You wouldn't deny me that, would you?"

Dek-lee shuddered and pulled the gift close to their body, hugging it to their furry torso. "I thank you for the gift."

"Open it!" Mia demanded and hopped off her chair to stand next to Dek-lee. "I help!"

"Yes, I need your help," Dek-lee agreed. "It's very big."

Holding the gift between them, Dek-lee let Mia flip open the top of the bag. She made an exaggerated sound of exertion as she tugged the garment out. Everyone chuckled when she made a real sound of surprise. "This is loooong!"

Even when the gift was completely revealed, Iris didn't know what it was. It looked like a vest for someone with an eight-foot torso. Before she could ask, Dek-lee was making a sound of delight as they gently tugged the item from Mia's grip.

"A cooling vest!" Dek-lee announced as they worked on getting it into place. "A very nice one too. I can't thank you enough, Damascus!"

"A cooling vest?" Iris asked, confused. "It's not hot in here."

"Not for you, but the Delorta home world is an ice planet," Damascus explained. "They're used to living and working in very cold temperatures. They can survive in warmer environments, like this ship, but it's uncomfortable. This vest is specifically designed for Delorta traveling outside their comfort zones."

Guilt hit Iris hard. "Dek-lee, you've got to tell me when you're not comfortable!"

The Delorta shrugged their massive shoulders. "I've been uncomfortable for a long time. It didn't occur to me to say anything. This doesn't take weight away from your soul. I swear."

She wanted to make them promise to tell her things in the future, but first she needed to get Mia out of the way. Dek-lee had gotten the vest on their humanoid body but was struggling to get the long length of it lined up with their equine parts. Mia's efforts to help were more detrimental than effective.

Once again, Damascus fixed a problem for Dek-lee before she could.

"Dek-lee probably needs more liquids," he told the little girl. "Could you ask the galley tech for water as cold as they can make it? If there's a little ice on the top, that's even better."

"I'll hurry!" Mia agreed and ran off to the far end of the galley where the food tech was putting things away and reloading machines.

With a few quick tugs, Damascus had the vest running down Dek-lee's back, secured by two straps under the horse-like section of their body. A few taps to the small control panel on the shoulder made a small row of lights come alive down the back. Within seconds Dek-lee's fur fluffed up, making them look even bigger.

"This is good," they murmured happily, their eyes half lidded with pleasure. "It's been so long since I felt my homeworld like this."

"You can talk to me, Dek-lee," Iris insisted. "I'm not really your owner. I'd much rather be your friend. I could always use more friends."

Dek-lee opened their eyes fully to stare down at Iris. "It's hard to speak to you as anything but an authority figure, but I'll try."

"Don't try once," she said. "Keep trying until you can. It's important to me."

"Will it make you happy?" Dek-lee asked.

"Very," she promised, desperately wanting to hug the giant cross between a bear and a horse. "I'll be happy, and my soul will get heavy. I promise."

"I gots it!" Mia came running up with a canister. "There's even some ice-y stuff on the edges."

Dek-lee accepted the drink and let Mia tell them how she had made it all herself. While they were busy, Iris looked at Damascus.

"Why do I need a heavy soul? The only information on the Delorta in the ship's unibase is about population density, trade, and military capabilities. Nothing on religion."

"I'm not surprised they omitted that. They try to keep the unibases for ships streamlined," Damascus said.

"Do you know?" she pressed.

He sounded a soft, affirmative rumble. "The Delorta believe that, after they die, their souls become stars, but only if they accumulated enough weight through their lives by doing good deeds. If you aren't heavy enough, your soul is a planet or moon, circling someone else's soul. If you were actively bad, you might become a comet or, even worse, space dust."

"That's fascinating," Iris said. "Now I get the weight thing."

"Delorta abhor slavery because it takes away free will," Damascus continued. "That automatically reduces the weight of your soul. That's probably why Dek-lee was underweight. They gave their food away, and some of those wounds must've come from protecting someone else from an angry owner."

Iris was both moved by the idea of wanting a heavy, dense soul and how much Dek-lee must have suffered. Now she understood why they didn't want to be set free until they'd paid their debt to her.

"How can I convince Dek-lee that setting them free would make me happy and maybe increase the weight of their soul?"

"I wouldn't try to set them free yet," Damascus warned. "Let them live with you and Mia for a little while, at least until they're healthier. If you set them free now, they might do something destructive to themself."

She hadn't thought of that. Damascus's words made her think of Merrick begging everyone to let him die. At least Dek-lee wasn't that bad. She didn't want to be someone who owned a slave, but if it meant giving Dek-lee the shelter and care they needed, she'd let it continue for a while longer.

"That's good advice, thank you," she said. She honestly hadn't expected Damascus to be this helpful. "You care."

He sounded the whoosh-snap of a derisive rattle. "No, I don't. Only fools care about anything but themselves. The universe is harsh and unforgiving. There's no room for sentimentality."

"Yet you're the one who gave Dek-lee a valuable gift without any prompting," she pointed out.

He sounded the derisive rattle again but didn't say anything snide or mocking. In fact, he looked away as if he was having a hard time meeting her gaze.

Mia and Dek-lee had moved away from the table to make more ice water, so she didn't need to be careful about keeping her voice low anymore.

She moved around the table to sit next to him. "It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself, not me. I talked to the med techs. You agreed to pay for treatment beyond what they needed to do to save Merrick's life."

He sounded a negative rattle, but she held up a hand before he could start arguing with her.

"I didn't realize it then, but now I see that you felt bad for him when you realized the other humans were on Dandilow II. I know you think they all died early, but we humans are tougher and smarter than you guys think."

"You must be," he said in a low voice without a hint of mockery. "If the other humans are even half as fierce as you, then they very well might've survived."

She beamed at his compliment. "I think—"

Her words died in her throat as Damascus lifted his face, his silver eyes focusing on her with an intensity that made her shiver.

"I meant what I said to you in the medical suite."

She was so captured by his eyes that it took a few seconds for his words to sink in. "You mean about the passion?"

Had her voice just warbled like a teenager? She'd be embarrassed if she wasn't so distracted by the rich scent of chocolate filling her nose.

He sounded an affirmative rumble that she felt along her skin. They were so close, she could feel heat radiating off him. They weren't touching yet, but all she'd need to do was scoot over, and they'd be pressed against each other.

He raised a finger and gently traced a claw over her lips. "I'll give you that hope is necessary for survival if you'll agree that passion is necessary for living."

Opening her mouth, she darted her tongue out to lick his finger.

His eyes opened wider and the silver seemed to darken. He started up a deep, thrumming rumble and pressed the finger against her lips, requesting entrance. She opened her mouth a little further and sucked his finger in.

He pulled in a sharp breath and froze as she ran her tongue over the tip of his claw, the pad of his finger, and the first joint. Then she sucked.

His mouth opened in an almost inaudible moan.

"I thought I was going to teach you about passion," he gasped. "I was wrong."

"What's going on over there?" Talzeum shouted from across the galley.

Talzeum's question made both of them jerk. She wasn't the only one who'd forgotten they were in the galley and surrounded by half the crew; Damascus had gotten lost in the moment also.

Damascus pulled his hand away and stood up so abruptly the table was shoved a short distance. "Nothing is going on," he declared. "I've finished, and I'm leaving."

He looked down at her and pointed to the bag on the table. "There's something else in there, a gift for Mia."

Then he left. He was walking, but if he moved any faster, he would've broken into a run.

Bemused, Iris watched him disappear out the galley door. He'd gone from Mr. Sexy-and-Smooth to Mr. Panicked-and-Fleeing in .00023 seconds flat.

Turning around in her seat, she saw the crew glancing at the door and talking among themselves. Ah, now she got it. He hadn't wanted to get abused by the crew for seducing the human pet.

"We're going to need to work on his relationships on the ship," Iris murmured as Mia returned to their table and climbed up on a chair.

"Who you talkin' about?" Mia asked as she dug into the large bag.

"Damascus," Iris said, helping the little girl. Dek-lee took their seat to watch.

"I likes Da, he's my friend," Mia said absently as she basically crawled into the bag, making Iris chuckle.

"Don't get lost in there," Dek-lee instructed, making giggles come out of the bag.

"I saw Damascus depart when Talzeum called out," they commented. "Is everything well with him?"

"Yeah, he just didn't want to give the crew any excuses," Iris explained.

Dek-lee was clearly confused. "Excuses?"

Iris gave a little shrug. "Excuses to hurt him. He's done a good job of alienating people. Palathum would love to shove him out an airlock, and the crew isn't far behind. If they see him doing anything they think might be inappropriate, I'm sure they probably wouldn't check in with the captain before they acted."

"How can they dislike Damascus?" Dek-lee asked.

The question made Iris snort. "He might've given you a nice gift, but he hasn't been very friendly. He avoids everyone, and then makes a big deal about how he owns Merrick. I don't think he's been back to the empire in a while either."

Dek-lee nodded. "Ah, he's protective of himself. Many slaves I met were like that. They'd been hurt and couldn't handle being hurt again."

Iris blinked. "I'm blind," she muttered.

"You are?" Dek-lee asked, leaning forward. "Your eyes are tracking me. Should I call for the healer or would you rather walk to the infirmary?"

"I'm not literally blind," she said, rubbing a hand over her face. "I was blind to Damascus's issues. I should've figured it out sooner. Talins don't go rogue like that for no reason."

"I watched him walk through the slave market several times while I was waiting to be sold," Dek-lee said. "I noticed because he's such a distinct color. He never looked at us as if we were nothing. When he did meet the eyes of a slave for sale, he would always nod. He acknowledged us as if we were free. Then he bought Merrick. The human passed out before he could find the seller."

"There's a good reason he bought Merrick," Iris argued. "He needed to trade him for passage to Balforge."

"You didn't see the human while he was at the market," Dek-lee argued. "I'm truly surprised he survived the trip to the medical suite. Damascus was gentle with him and even tried to comfort him. If Merrick had begged for his freedom later, I think Damascus would've granted it."

Iris was interested. "You honestly believe he'd give up his goal to set Merrick free?"

"I know he would," Dek-lee answered without hesitation. "He'd already bought and set five slaves free. They weren't in as bad a shape as Merrick, but they were about to be sold to the abattoir."

Iris shook her head in shock. "Sapient creatures are sold to be eaten? I thought they were making that up."

Dek-lee gave her a sad look. "No, Iris. The meat buyers came through every ten days. Damascus was stuck on Bathma because he'd used much of his funds to buy those slaves. After he set them free, he gave them some funds to get home. It left him picking up odd jobs on the station. The ten-day mark was coming up again, and he would've probably needed to buy me."

"You?" Iris gasped. "You weren't in the best of health, but you weren't that bad."

"But I'd earned a reputation for being troublesome," Dek-lee explained, their expression bitter. "I'd argued with owners that they were hurting or neglecting their slaves in the past. No one wanted to buy me."

Iris went cold at how close Dek-lee had been to death. "And you think Damascus would've saved you if we hadn't bought you?"

"Perhaps," Dek-lee answered. "He might not have been able to if he had to spend too much on Merrick's medical care, but he would've tried. He'd bought so many slaves that were about to be food that the sellers thought he was eating them, but we knew he wasn't. There was a name for him among the slaves."

"Don't stop there," Iris pressed. "What was it?"

"Lithori," Dek-lee answered. "It's an ancient Ollie word that refers to someone who helps you move when you can't."

Iris went quiet for a moment, digesting all this new information. While they'd been talking, Mia had found the bottom of the bag and had just wiggled her way out. Sitting back, she held up her hand to show a stack of four balls bound together.

"Looks what I gots!" she announced.

"Ah, clack-spheres!" Dek-lee said and reached over to press the binding. Once released, the balls all fell in different directions. Every time they knocked into something, they made a pleasant chime sound and changed colors.

Mia scrambled to collect them, talking to the balls as if they were misbehaving children. It was the perfect gift for a rambunctious human child and a thoughtful gift from a male who intrigued and irritated her.

"Damn it, Damascus!" Iris muttered. "I wanted to have sex, not feelings!"

"What did you say?" Dek-lee asked.

"Nothing," Iris answered as Mia disturbed a chair to collect one of the clack-spheres. "Let's go to the exercise room where there's more room to play."

"I could accompany you," Danakium said, stepping up next to her.

"Great," Iris enthused. With both Dek-lee and Danakium there to play with Mia, Iris would be free to stand back and think about everything she'd learned.