"Okay, tell me how to stop. How can I feel safe?"
"You do feel safe where you are, correct?" I nodded.
"I'm not ready to go anywhere. I don't really have any reason to go anywhere any way. Eric look." I got up and brought the vid-screen with me into the huge closet, as Sydney referred to it. I turned it so he could see all of the dresses. "I don't need to go shopping. Sydney, Gram, and Gina bought me all of these dresses and there are even more things in the drawers. I turned the screen so he could see a different section. "These are the clothes I brought with me. Oh, and look at all of the shoes!" I pointed the screen downward. Then, I turned it back to me and went back to bed. "What could I possibly want?" Eric's eyes glittered.
"I see."
"Ethan and Sherman said it was safer here anyway, so why bother leaving? However, I may get Eliot and Simon to take me to the jewelry store. Hiroshi gave me credits and insisted I spend them frivolously, and I enjoy watching the way one of the shopkeepers dreamily bats her eyelashes at Simon. It's hilarious." Eric grew thoughtful.
"Then, there is a bakery not far from the store to which I believe you are referring, where Eliot will suffer the same fate." Eric chuckled at my expression.
"That sounds like fun! Thank you for the suggestion. Eric, are you going to come here for a visit?"
"Soon. Good night, Teagan."
"Good night."
I had finished brushing my teeth, when my vid-screen beeped again. Yukihyo looked out at me from it with concern etched into his features. "How are you?" he asked.
"I'm fine. I miss you, though."
"Chirp."
"Hello, Thunderdrop. Are you taking care of my wife?"
"Chirp." Yukihyo examined my eyes and my expression.
"I worried the news would cause you to become distressed." I shook my head.
"No, it is quite the opposite. I feel my mother got the justice she deserved. However, I am doubting my own character."
"Why?" Yukihyo asked.
"I'm glad they took him. I hope he felt terror. I hope he felt helpless. I hope he felt pain. I hope he felt hopeless and weak. I hope he died screaming. What does that say about me?"
Yukihyo sympathized, "I have felt as you do now. You want him to have experienced the way he made you feel. He has been judged and executed. I assure you. The Parvacs used a painful neurotoxin to extract all of the information they wanted. They have talented inquisitors who probably made the questioning uncomfortable for him. Nathan Green insulted a very powerful man just by seeing his daughter without his approval. Had he treated your mother like a queen, he still would have suffered. However, he beat and murdered her. Her father took his revenge."
"I hope she can rest now."
"Lady wife, I find no fault with you for feeling as you do. You seemed to gain peace with this news."
"Today changed me. I grew up believing his lies, lies he told just to hurt me, and now I know the truth."
"You are beautiful, my wife. I will call you in the morning. Please do not be troubled. I will return for you from Malta, and we will put all of this behind us. For now, enjoy the opportunity you have been given to become acquainted with your family."
"I'm trying to, but what about the Parvacs? I have more than I ever dreamed possible, you, family, and a home. What if they rip it all away?"
"You are safe. Had I thought otherwise, I never would have left you. Sleep, lady wife. All will be well."
Left with those words, I fell asleep and hoped Yukihyo's reassurances were true. I dreamed of a future in the stars with Yukihyo and of a home with Arachnean soil under my feet and spiders swaying through the trees on lines of silk.
The End
Teagan's adventures continue in The Space Merchants of Arachne.
The Space Merchants Page 41
