“The Legion observes first,” he said. “Motives. Weak points. What will bend them with the least blood.” He swallowed once. “It is a demonstration. It must be persuasive enough to imprint on their collective species-mind, so they will not try to leave again in a few chrono-decades. It must not be humiliating. Humiliation breeds fury. It breeds heroes.”
He lifted his head fully and looked her in the eyes.
“And I was very good at it,” he said softly. “I had been promoted more than once. I was not a common soldier. I like to watch. I like to win. Everything prepared me for it.” His mouth tightened. “The Geons submitted within weeks. But it was one of the most brutal expeditions in Legion history.”
He shook his head, once, sharply, as if rejecting something that still lived in his memory.
“I told the commanders the Geons are pack-minded,” he said. “Kill a leader and another rises. Then another. It never ends that way.” His hands clenched on her hips, careful not to hurt. “They did not listen. In the end, one Geon matriarch flew unarmed into the militarized zone. She offered herself willingly, only to stop the deaths.” His throat worked. “That sacrifice turned them. Not our force. Not our fear. A leader of a third-tier clan they themselves despised.”
Lily brought a hand to her mouth.
It was horrifying. Not just the cruelty, but the cold logic behind it, the way it could happen to anyone. To Earth. To humans. A careless decision, a wrong leader, and suddenly you were just another species being “integrated.”
And Khar… Khar looked like someone who had survived a storm and was still hearing thunder.
“When the slaughter ended, my service was nearly complete,” he said. “I knew Divani leadership would come for me. When I joined the Legion, I technically lost my citizenship and received a neutral one. They could not command me, but they would have tried something else.” His gaze flicked away. “They would have appealed to family. They would have asked me to return, bring my experience to the colonies.”
He let out a bitter exhale.
“But it would not solve the problem that made me leave,” he said. “So with a few favors and minor administrative crimes, I separated early and disappeared.” The edge of a smile appeared,thin and tired. “They may still be looking. But the universe is nearly infinite.”
The smile grew warmer.
“And then I met you,” he said. “So I suppose I must be grateful for everything that happened.”
Lily could not climb out of the deep emotional trench his story had carved.
“Khar,” she whispered, “that’s horrible. I don’t even know what you went through…”
His hand rose and cupped her cheek. His thumb stroked once, gentle.
“And I do not know what you went through when you were taken,” he said. “At least I chose my path. You did not, I assume, stand beside a road with a sign that said, ‘aliens, this way.’”
Despite herself, Lily laughed.
“How do you know?” she said. “Maybe I always dreamed a massive demon space alien would have his fun with me.”
This time Khar laughed too. It was not pure joy yet, but it broke the worst of the heaviness, and Lily felt him loosen, just slightly, like a knot easing.
“Then leave Helios’s door open tonight,” he murmured, “and you may receive a pleasant surprise.”
Chapter 20
Close, Then So Far
Khar
“By the Cradle. It is always better to stay alert. If something can go wrong, it will.”
Khar had lived by that creed since he was young.
His mother had never been fond of it.
He knew he was not being entirely honest with Lily, and that knowledge weighed on him more with every passing chrono-cycle. He had sworn to himself that he would be, soon. It was not that he had lied to her. Never that. But he had realized that they understood certain things very differently, and he did not want to frighten her before she was ready.
They needed time.
Time together.
