Immortalia

Chapter 13 - A Moment of Shame

Chapter 13 – A Moment of Shame

Aurora could feel the water surround her, covering her from Aaron’s eyes. She stared at him from the water, trying to figure out why he was here. With his hands in his pockets, he stared at the surface of the water.

It didn’t bother her that he might have seen her naked. Zachary had often stressed the importance of her looks, and she knew there was nothing wrong with her shape—especially after all that training at Haw Tech. Never mind the fact that she was often put on display for the good of Zach’s shop—she was used to it by now.

However, she could feel her cheeks heat up with the possibility that Aaron might not have liked what he saw. It was shame that made her panic—not embarrassment.

Treading waters, she faced him, waiting for him to say something. He didn’t move or say anything, and she cleared her throat. The noise seemed to snap him out of his trance, and he looked up to meet her confused stared.

Aurora cocked an eyebrow. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Errh…” Aaron scratched his head, looking around the area until he finally settled on his shoes. “I… ehm… I think that we need to talk.”

“About what?” She started to swim towards him.

“About my…” He hesitated, a pained expression showing on his face. “About Shani.”

“Oh.” In a way, Aurora had expected something like this. There was no way he’d simply forget about her knowledge of his past. “Well… talk then,” she said.

“Do you mind coming up from there?” His hands found his pockets again.

She nodded before grabbing onto the shore. As she looked up at him, the sun seemed to form a halo behind his head. “Do you mind turning around? I’m kinda sorta naked here.”

His face became a beetroot red color right before he turned around. Aurora smiled gently to herself before using her arms to pull her body up on the grass-covered ground. Grabbing her clothes, she quickly dressed and sat down on the shore. “I’m decent now,” she said.

Aaron’s hands were in his pockets as he glanced around, before taking a seat beside her. He didn’t say anything for a while. Aurora quickly lost patience, and after another agonizingly long moment, she sighed. “What is it?”

He snorted. “It’s funny…” he started, turning his head to look at her, “I’ve always thought that nobody knew about my relationship with Shani.”

“Weren’t you public at Haw Tech?” Aurora asked.

“No.” Aaron rubbed his face. “I mean… Could you imagine? An Immortalia with privileges of marriage?”

Right. She’d forgotten about the laws put on the shoulders of Immortalias. Personally, Aurora didn’t mind the fact that she couldn’t marry—she’d been used to it for so long. However, she’d seen humanity go down this path too many times. Interspecies relationships were simply unheard of—it’d been so through generations.

“How come you proposed to her then?”

He shrugged. “There’s a fraction of captains with the license to wed. We were thinking of going upstate to find one of them. Plenty of Immortalias’ married their owners up there.” He looked at his hands, fumbling with them. “Shani and I… Well… We had it all planned out. We’d go up there, and come back as a couple. Once married, Haw Tech couldn’t do much to keep us apart.”

“Why would Haw Tech keep you apart?” Aurora frowned.

“Shani was technically their property. We were working on a way to free her from her contract, so she could get married.” He glanced over to her, meeting her eyes shortly. “She’d go to Hawkings and make a deal for her to work there but without them owning her.”