Chapter Twenty-Two

Elio

There were plenty of ways for a dragon to find out if they were pregnant, but I didn't want to think about any of those as I walked into the entry way of the Star Room with Fred. It wasn't that I didn't want to have his hatchling. We just had a really big hurdle in front of us. I wanted to beg him not to fall back asleep like he had on Earthside after seeing Lotus again. It wouldn't really be her. I was pretty damn sure she moved on, not too long after I did. It was just a memory of her, but it was one he didn't have. Either the Other World's magic ate it up or his mind blocked it out to protect him.

"Good evening, travelers," a tall, dark-haired guide greeted us.

"Good evening," Fred nodded.

I sniffed. He was the only guide in the building. Hell, we were the only three people in the building. It was rare that someone needed to visit the Star Room after dark even if the guides offered around the clock services.

"Hello again, Tritus," I grinned.

"I wondered when you'd come back," the guide rose from behind the reception desk. "Once the Medwin 2 landed we all started preparing for you. Not that there was much to do. The stars are the same as they ever are. Not much has changed since you last came to check."

"I expected as much."

"Are you here to do the thing?" Tritus asked, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"We're here to do the thing," I nodded, returning his smile.

"I've never gotten to do the thing before. Someone else is always on duty when it's time. Come on in. Shoes off if you have them."

We took our shoes off and followed Tritus deeper into the building. The reception area and cavern turned hallway wasn't much to look at. Most of the one-time temple was simplistic. We needed a safe place for the stars between life, not a beautiful place. It was the actual Star Room that held all the dazzle. Shelves lined the walls, holding all the Starscale dragons who weren't alive at the moment. Since leaving Earthside, we had a lot fewer deaths with only a few hundred scales in between lives. Sometimes new ones came out of nowhere because somewhere out there new souls were being made or growing or how the hell ever that worked. I might've remembered being dead a teensy bit but I didn't have all the answers to the universe's mysteries.

"Are these souls?" Fred asked, taking in the rainbow of stars shining light into the dark cavern and only half-picking up my thoughts over our mating link.

"A scale could never house a soul, friend," Tritus grinned, shaking his head. "Even the magic of these particular scales could never hold that power – that sheer life. A soul is beyond anything you might imagine. Could you imagine squishing down everything you are – were – and will be into one tiny scale? Or even a huge one? Souls would never fit into a scale. Not even a magical one. We're lucky they fit into our bodies at all. Might in small packages and all of that."

Fred nodded and didn't say anything else for a long moment. He held his breath as if despite what Tritus said he believed he was in a room full of souls. Some dead folks see this orchard or grove where souls hang like fruits to rest. Not everyone, but some folks talk about it. He held his breath as if he were in that sometimes-existing grove and might knock an unripe soul fruit free from its tree.

"You can breathe, alpha," I whispered to him. "The scales won't fall off. The shelves are very secure."

"Is her scale here?" he asked a second later.

He was holding our mating link shut to me. I let out a long breath and entwined my fingers through his. Lotus's scale was here. He didn't have to be so secretive about wondering about her, but now wasn't the time nor the place to discuss all of that. Tritus was here and soon he'd see what we lived together while I wasn't living at all.

"Over here," I tugged on his hand. "Ours would be here too if we were dead. They'd be right next to hers."

I led him across the room where the bright yellow star-shaped scale sat.

"We had to craft her a new one," Tritus said. "Once she was part of us. Probably part of us who left the planet. Sometimes souls get separated out or their stars break or something."

"How do you know who they are then?" Fred asked.

"We don't. They do and we believe them because up until now most Earthsiders had forgotten all about our scales. We have our own meet up spot in the dead part of the Other World too. That's how she and your newest mate met," Tritus explained.

"Is that true?" Fred asked me and Tritus shrugged.

Neither one of us had any experience explaining all of this to someone who wasn't born on our world. Tritus and I knew it to be true, but Fred only had our word to go by.

"Should be enough for him, seeing that we're true-mates and all," my dragon grumbled all crunchy into my thoughts.

I agreed with my inner beast, but Fred was stubborn. I hoped that stubbornness was enough to help all the Starscale worlds eventually connect to the Other World gateways.

"It is," I nodded. "She was as surprised as you are now – once she remembered those lives."

"And you have that memory here?" he asked, pointing at the floor.

"Well, not that one," I shook my head. "The one I have is of the three of us agreeing to be mates and to find each other again."

"Let me see it," Fred said, his expression almost blank.

"Will you stop shutting me out of our link?" I asked, keeping my voice level for Tritus's sake.

"I'm not," Fred shook his head. "I can't shut you out of the link. I can only hold my part closed. I need this time. We'll talk about it all after I see, okay? After that we have forever, right?"

"Forever isn't real," I shook my head. "Not in this lifetime anyway. We have forever in some sense though---" I stopped rambling because it wasn't going to get me anywhere. It was time to put my memory where my promises were. I nodded to Tritus and he disappeared deeper into the Star Room.

"I'm not lying," I said when I thought Tritus was out of earshot.

Fred leaned over and kissed my temple. I wasn't sure if he was disagreeing with me or was unrattled by everything unfolding.