Barbaric

Chapter Seven

(Jox's POV)

That night I had...well, I had a really nice dream about Delkele and me. We had talked to one another, and he had admitted his feelings for me, and one thing led to another better thing...gosh, I honestly never wanted that dream to end. However, something woke me in the middle of the night. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but at the height of my dream, my eyes were flying open and I was shooting up in my pod.

My breath was heavy, and surprisingly enough, sweat was dripping down my face, causing me to be all the more confused as my gaze trailed across my room. The silence was nearly deafening, and I wondered what the hell it was that woke me up.

I climbed off of my pod, my body completely nude as I usually sleep with no clothes on, and made my way over to the large floor-to-ceiling windows, peeking outside to see if there were any nocturnal animals lurking anywhere close. However, I didn't see, nor hear anything for the longest time, and the longer I stood there, the hotter my room seemed to get.

What the hell? Why is my room so warm all of a sudden? I wondered to myself, dragging a hand down my face as my brows furrowed in concern.

Deciding to investigate, I quickly got dressed and grabbed my cooling beads before I made my way out of my room, the palace eerily quiet as I began my investigation. Surely it shouldn't be so hot, right? I mean, we were on a planet of ice, the warmest it ever got was negative seventeen degrees. Surely it shouldn't be this warm...unless the Torch Stones were more powerful than I thought.

With a sigh of irritation, I made my way into the ship hanger, a frown forming on my face as my gaze slid towards the three large stones that surrounded Ship A-14, each of them nearly eight feet in height. And from each one, an orange light emanated from the center, creating heat within the chamber.

And apparently further than that, too, I mused, making my way closer to the one closest to me. Now how the hell do I turn this thing off? Or down, even? Did these things even have an off switch?

If they were anything like cooling beads, probably not. Unfortunately, if that was the case then we would just have to start carrying our cooling beads around until I returned them back to Teiken. I would rather be safe than sorry with our whole creet infestation, so if I had to suffer a night wearing my beads, I could deal with the consequences. Or, well, annoyances.

"So this is what's making it warmer than usual," a soft voice rang from behind me, causing me to jump and whirl around. I relaxed when I recognized Asurah, a frown on my king's face as he walked up beside me, white eyes transfixed on the Torch Stone.

"Ah, I apologize for not informing you about this...but we have a creet infestation, and my hope was that these would...get rid of them quicker than the traditional way." I glanced at him, noticing the dark bags under his eyes, and immediately, my heart clenched in sympathy for my king. "I'm...surprised to see you out of your room. How are you hanging up? Y-You know, after..."

Asurah glanced at me with a sad smile and shrugged, averting his gaze to the floor. His long snowy hair hid his face from view, but even so, I gathered that his small smile had turned into a frown. "I'm...ok, I think. It was hard, hearing about all the innocent lives we lost, because I-I can't ever be a decent enough leader to not let those kind of things happen. I-If I was just a better leader, maybe I could have seen this coming, and prevented it, or something." He glanced at me, arms crossed loosely across his chest. "Maybe I've been doing this all wrong. Maybe peaceful isn't the way to go."

I shook my head and grabbed his biceps, turning him towards me as I stared into his eyes. "Don't do that, Asurah. Don't change because everyone else are jerks. You are an amazing king who cares so deeply for his people. Peaceful is part of your allure, Asurah, it makes you better than everyone else. You don't need violence to solve your problems, unlike these other kings who think killing others solve everything. You're perfect the way you are, and don't ever change."

Asurah sighed and walked away from me, nibbling at his bottom lip. "I'm tired of losing people, Jox. I'm tired of being too useless to defend the ones I care about. I want to be able to do something."

"Well...we could put up defenses. It's not necessarily violence, and the only way they would be triggered is if an enemy decided to fire on us." Asurah glanced at me as I made my way back over to him, meeting his gaze as I gave him a reassuring smile. "Perhaps we could have a defensive weapon placed in all of the major cities, and hell, we could also initiate some kind of safety protocol for the innocents so they won't be caught in the crossfire."

Asurah briefly glanced away, nodding his head as he began nibbling at his bottom lip. "Like a bunker, you mean?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah. One in each city, large enough to hold the inhabitants. We could put enough food down there to feed everyone for maybe a week, or at least until the surface threat is taken care of. If it will make you feel better about all of this, I could begin putting in a few calls to maybe get this started, at least."

Asurah gave me a thankful smile and gave me a hug, his body so much smaller than mine. "I'd like that, Jox. Thank you. I don't know why I never thought about this before..."

"Don't blame yourself," I reassured him, giving him a gentle squeeze before I pulled back, "sometimes it takes a bit of heartbreak before something genius pops into your mind. Hell, I'm the engineer here, if anything, I should have probably thought of this once you won that war, way back when."

"Seriously though...thank you. I was...I was going back to that dark place in my mind, and now I see the light. I see hope now, thanks to you." Asurah smiled and weakly punched me on my arm. "I'm glad my patera hired you. Best investment he's ever made."

I returned his smile, and patted him on his shoulder, glad that I was able to pull him back to the world of the living. I've been in that dark place before, when my best friend Luthiaer had betrayed me all those years ago. I had felt worthless, and like I wasn't wanted...and it was actually King Armonias that had helped me out of that funk. He hired me to work in the castle, washing clothes since I was still pretty young, but even so, he was the one that let me know I wasn't worthless. He gave me the best tutors, and practically treated me like his own son, sometimes. It was...it was nice, and I was glad I could do the same for Asurah, even if it were me suggesting and idea.

"Anyway, I should probably get back to bed," I said, scratching the back of my neck. "I've got an early morning tomorrow, and a crap load of work I need to get through. Sorry about the Torch Stones, we should have them out by tomorrow evening."

Asurah hummed to himself and nodded, pursing his full lips. "It's fine. Anything to get rid of those darn creets. Last year they ate through a lot of my favorite clothes, and I've still not forgiven them for that." He shrugged, causing his hair to flow over his shoulder. "Besides, I'm tired as hell, and I'm sure Joseph's going to wake up soon if I'm not back to cuddle him. Don't tell him I told you this, but he likes being the little spoon."

I chuckled. "I don't mind being a little spoon on occasion. It's nice to have someone to hold you."

"I'm sure you'll have that soon, with Delkele."

I sighed, my heart growing heavy as my mind strayed to the Narakan king. I didn't say anything to Asurah...I merely nodded my head, gave him a smile before I bade him goodnight and made my way back to my room. Soon with Delkele, huh? Well...at this point I don't know what the hell was going to happen, especially since he still hadn't called me back yet. Gods, relationships were hard. But...I didn't want to give up on Delkele so soon, not when he was the only one I felt so intensely for. I never felt this way about any of my previous relationships...nothing this intense.

So I wasn't going to give up on him...not yet, at least.

A/N: A little cute conversation between Jox and Asurah. I do feel bad for Asurah, but hopefully with this new idea of creating safe havens in times of potential war, well, hopefully that'll ease his mind a bit.

But anywho, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Lemme know what you think! I love feedback!