Page 57 of Leviathan

"You're a human," she said, her voice cracking. "I haven't seen a human in... weeks? Months? I'm not sure how much time has passed."

"Yes, my name is Maria," I said. "I was the person in the MECH suit. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner. Lyrien didn't think it was safe to let anyone on the planet know that I wasn't a robot."

"Lyrien?" Leija asked, lifting the back of a trembling hand to wipe at her eyes.

"Lyrien, he's my mate. He's a Vaurelcar, like Eun," I said.

"Do you know what is happening to Eun?" Leija asked. "He isn't waking up. I think... I think I'm inside his hair? What is even happening?"

"It isn't hair," I said. "They're called neurofilaments, and they are a major part of a Vaurelcar's body. Lyrien, can you explain what is going on?"

The screen split in half, and an image of Lyrien's face appeared.

"Hello Leija," he said, sounding stilted and uncomfortable. "I am Lyrien. Welcome aboard. Can you tell me who severed Eun? How long ago did it happen?"

"Severed?" Leija asked, worry flashing across her face. "What do you mean by severed?"

"Who cut him out from the rest of his body?" Lyrien said. "If it happened recently, we can restore him, and it will help with his healing. If we could get to the rest of his body before it dies off, that would be ideal. Regrowing an entire new body is far more traumatic."

"I don't understand," Leija said. "What do you mean by the rest of his body?"

"His neurofilaments, or his hair as you've been calling it," I said. "They form the rest of his body. Who cut him away from them?"

"His family has been cutting his hair short since he was a little kid," Leija said. "He only stopped cutting them when he got away from them."

Lyrien's face was pure horror.

"They've been cutting his neurofilaments short?" he hissed, his voice laced with rage. "His whole life, he hasn't been able to grow? Who would do that to their child?"

"They aren't his parents," Leija said. "They bought him because they wanted him to have children with their daughter. They said a whole bunch of really weird shit about that. I mean, it is one thing to adopt a kid, it is an entire other thing to purchase a child because you want to add their genetics to your family tree."

"I need a minute," Lyrien said, his tone dark, and he dropped off the call, leaving us alone as a light tremor ran through the floor, like his entire body was reacting to his emotional state.

"They hurt him, didn't they?" Leija said, her voice sad.

"Vaurelcar's neurofilaments are the majority of their physical body," I said. "Cutting them off is like... if you gave a child a paralytic drug so you could keep them in a wheelchair their whole life when they would be completely healthy without the poison. Obviously, it's not exactly the same, but from what I understand of Lyrien’s species, it means the people who bought Eun have been severely physically abusing him his whole life to keep him weak and under control."

Leija buried her face in her hands, her shoulders hunching.

"He's safe now," I said. "You're coming with us, and you both are safe here."

She let out a shuddering sob.

"It's all my fault," she said, her voice muffled by her palms and her tears. "He's like this right now because I did this to him."

"You cut off his neurofilaments?" Lyrien asked as his face snapped back onto the screen, his tone filled with a sharp fury.

"No," she lifted her face from her hands, tears streaming down her face. "No, not that. He was only protecting me! He didn't want to fight because he didn't want to go crazy and eat those aliens! This whole time, he has been struggling to control himself, but he had to fight to protect me, and then he just lost it, and it's all my fault!"

Lyrien's expression softened.

"It isn't your fault, Leija," he said. "His body has been desperate to grow his whole life, and it hasn't been able to. It's likely that because of the repeated damage to his neurofilaments, his body was saving up for a moment of rapid expansion, so that it could get large enough not to be cut back. It is no surprise that the moment he got around enough calories to shell lock and finally expand, he went into a catatonic growth stage, a state that is made worse by the fact that he has to process the toxins out of it all. Right now, he has completely taken over the small ship you arrived in, but his growth has slowed. I can continue to supply him with enough to grow at a more moderate rate once he regains full consciousness. None of this is your fault."

"You got him to safety," I added. "If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't have gotten off that planet with the one transport that understood what he was going through."

"He could have found another Vaurelcar at the spaceport," Leija said, as she wiped her face, the flow of her tears stalling as she listened even as she protested.

"No," Lyrien said. "This is Calicium-controlled space. No Vaurelcar would risk going to a populated planet in a Calicium-riddled zone if there were any other option. If Eun had tried to leave the system with anyone else, there is a very high probability that he would have been caught and enslaved."