Equivalent Worlds - Chapter Eleven

For Tenyo's LMS contest. Word Count: 1362, approx.

Chapter Eleven

Amerys frowned at the screen, trying to figure out what it was that Emir was trying to show him. The words on the screen seemed to blur together before his eyes, almost lifting off the screen. He shook his head and looked towards the other man. "I don't understand it, Emir," he said, frown deepening. "It's just indecipherable nonsense to me."

Emir met his gaze evenly. "That's because it's not written in any of the languages the Galactic Coalition recognises, Amerys."

He snorted. "Then what is it written in?"

"You think I know?" the other man spat and pushed off the console. Emir stalked away, paused and then stalked back. He pointed at the image on the screen. Amerys's gaze slide back to it, eyes scanning over the crudely carved stone. The image, as far as the Coalition knew, had been taking on an essentially abandoned Baqir. The only planet that had not joined the Galactic Coalition, purely because there was no one to join it. "It's Baqiran, apparently. None of us can read it. I ran it through the search engine with the description of Seth's symptoms. It's the only thing that returned a result."

He looked at the screen with renewed curiousity. "That's....interesting."

"Thought you might say that."

"Do we have anything on the Baqirans or is that still an unknown?" Amerys asked, gaze narrowing as he studied the words. The letters squirmed again, blurring together then into duplicates and triplicates efored merging back into one. Amerys grunted and pushed off the console, scowling. "Emir?"

"No, we--"

"Rhys!"

They turned as one towards the doorway, somewhat surprised, as Sam stumbled to a halt in the doorway. She leaned heavily against the doorframe, panting harshly and glanced between them before focusing on him. Amerys blinked slowly. "Sam, what is it?"

"My brother," she said between panting breaths. "He's awake."

"He's what?"

"Awake!" she exclaimed and pushed off the doorframe, taking a shaky step inside. "You must come now, Rhys. Those veins? They were gone... but I don't know how long for." She lifted one shoulder in a little shrug, fixing him with urgent, ernest eyes. "He wants to talk to you, Rhys, and he's in a lot of pain--"

Amerys swore, glancing back over his shoulder at the image of the Baqiran text. He scowled at it again, flicked Emir a glance. "Find someone who can read that," he ordered and stalked for the doorway, catching Sam's arm as he passed. "Is he still in his room?"

"Yes. I told him to stay and rest--"

"Good," he grunted, pushing her ahead of him. "Then let's go."

Sam led him back to Seth's room as a fast pace. They didn't run. Amerys didn't want to attract the rest of the crew's attention. Past the handful he'd taken on the shuttle with him and Pyrrha, he didn't particularly trust anyone else. His trust was hard to earn lately, especially with Hakor and his pawns running about, trying to get in his way. He needed people he could depend on, who he knew weren't going to rush off to Hakor or someone else the moment they knew some pretty damn important information.

Which reminded him that he had to tell Pyrrha to hail the other two ships in his fleet and tell them to get their asses over to the Thanatos ASAP. He'd do that later. He had a potential consort to visit first. Seth was important. He needed to properly bond with the young man before Hakor got his dirty hands on him. If he lost Seth, everything he and the rest of his little alliance had been working on would be lost.

Amerys sighed as he turned the corner and followed Samira through a doorway halfway down the hall. And stopped abruptly as he realised he'd just stepped into a very dark room. The lights were there, though faintly, and he could see Seth's dark figure on the bed. Sam was crouched beside him. Seth was curled in on himself, hands covering his face and making a low, distressed noise.

"Seth?" he asked and the young man went very still. He gestured for the lighting to be brightened and grimaced when Seth seemed to cringe away from it. Sam glanced towards him, concern written all over her now well-lit face. "Seth, what's wrong?"

"He's sensitive to the light," Sam whispered from her brother's bedside. "He has a nasty headache--no. A pressure in his head... I don't know what it is anymore than he does."

"Sam. Get Emir and Anaua."

She stood up and crossed to where he stood, just inside the doorway, and hesitate. He glanced towards her, concerned. Although, most of that concern was for Seth now. Amerys looked at her levelly.

"Please help him," she told him lowly, avoiding looking directly at him. "This is hurting me as well."

"Go and fetch Emir and Anaua," he insisted, pressing a hand to her shoulder reassuringly. "They'll know how to help..."

He did not add the 'hopefully' he wanted to add to that sentence. Instead, he let the sentence trail off and waited until she nodded and began moving again. Amerys waited a few more minutes until he was sure she was gone before approaching the bed slowly.

"Seth."

The boy's attention snapped to him, even though he hadn't once moved his hands away from his face. Seth focused on him with everything else instead. Amerys could feel the whirling emotions in Seth now, could tell the boy was confused and angry, that he was still slightly panicked. He kept hs movements diliberately slow and careful, not stopping until he stood by the bed.

"Seth," he repeated, reaching out for him--and the young man jerked back. Amerys winced, a jolt of rejection hurtling through him. He forced it down, forced himself to listen.

"Don't touch me--" Seth's words were cut off with a sharp little inhale. When the young man spoke again, there was a touch of awe in his voice. "Why can I feel your emotions so sharply?"

He chuckled. "I was about to ask you the same thing," Amerys said, and glanced between the bed and the chair. He sat down in the chair. It smelled faintly of Samira, and he forced himself to focus on Seth again. Amerys tried to excude calmness as he settled into the chair, unsure of how well it was working. "But I think I can answer that question."

"Oh?" Seth was curious now, but he still refused to move his hands.

Amerys sat patiently, waiting. He knew that Seth knew why they could feel each others emotions now. He just wanted Seth to spell it out for him. It was, perhaps, cruel of him, but he wanted--no, needed--the boy to talk to him of his own violation. He would not force his presence on Seth, nor forced him to interact with people.

It took several long, tense moments before Seth inhaled sharply, then sighed and said; "I reached for your anger and took it into myself." He paused, then added in a whisper; "You told me not to."

"Yes," Amerys agreed quietly. "That I did." He paused, glancing back towards the doorway but Samira had not yet retured with Emir and Anaua. He wet his lips and turned back to find Seth watching him from between his fingers. His eyes were glowing blue. There were dark ugly veins criss-crossing his face, especially near his temples. Amerys figured that had to be rather painful. "Do you know why?"

"No."

He took a deep breath, watching the other man's glowing eyes for a moment, and then let it out. Seth had a right to know. Amerys had to tell him, and he couldn't be as delicate as he wanted to be about it. Something told him that Seth could handle a little blutness.

"Because it was the first step in forming a bond between us."