Zolantos covered He-Thing’s

naked, shivering, feverish body

with a heavy cloak,

and watched as his student

muttered to himself in delirium.

He had done what he could.

Returning

to the cockpit of the lasecopter,

Zolantos took the control spiral

from Vaila,

and spoke to her,

“Go to him.”

Vaila relinquished the control spiral.

She stepped into the back of

the lasercopter,

where He-Thing convulsed

in pain and terror,

delusion and shame

wracking his body.

Vaila sighed —

she loved He-Thing.

She had always loved him.

But, it was not meant to be —

Vaila was a Virgin Huntress,

promised to the Divine White Light

of the All-or-Nothing,

a lifetime of chastity

in exchange for the privilege of

wielding the sword as a woman —

otherwise forbidden by

the Great Father.

Vaila pressed

the back of her hand

against He-Thing’s forehead.

His body was flaring like

a dying sun,

his skin wet with perspiration,

and a pained groan

spilled from his dry lips.

“Shhh, Alam,”

Vaila whispered,

using He-Thing’s birth name,

his real name,

the name only those who loved him

knew.

Was this a ritual of death?

Would she consider this

moment

decades from now

when she remembered the loss

of the man she had loved?

Was He-Thing...

dying?

Vaila bent

and kissed

He-Thing’s sleeping,

trembling lips.

She got to her feet,

and after thinking

that he might stop breathing

once she departed,

she went back to the cockpit

where Zolantos

stoically

piloted the lasercopter.

“We must find a place to land,”

Vaila spoke.

“I have to apply the Sorceress’s

salve,

and boil him a tea.”

Zolantos nodded.

“I will find a place

on the other side

of the mountains.”

“Will he live?”

Vaila asked her father.

Zolantos was expressionless.

“That is not

for us to decide.”

Vaila became angry.

“Then

who is to decide?”

Zolantos scowled.

“There is only one thing

that can heal him now —

and that is time.”

Vaila’s anger

was subsumed by sadness.

“What will we do?”

Zolantos gave her a hard smile.

“We will take him

to the Hospital of the Blue Nectar.”

to be continued...