Echoes of the Past

Chapter Thirty Three - Part One

Chapter Thirty Three: Shortcomings - Part One 

Evan stood with Melida on the balcony outside her room. Their dinner had been a banquet; one so large it almost reminded Evan of the feasts they would have in his castle, when his parents had parties. Although of course nothing could match the royal extravagances of the King and Queen of Therapia when they wanted to impress. And neither could the food. Evan still had yet to find anything on this planet to his liking, and he wondered if he ever would.

He looked at the cheesebread pastry in his hand and frowned.

Melida smiled beside him, her large eyes gleaming in the warm light coming from her room. "Trust me, you might like this one." She had said she felt bad about him not eating much and had retrieved the pastry from the kitchens.

Evan took a small bite. It was not foul, or completely bland and tasteless. After a moment of chewing he met her eyes and gave a small shrug. "It will do. Thank you."

She beamed at him, leaned on the railing, and sipping on the sweet wine she had poured for them both. She had washed and straightened her hair that day, removing the usual wavy curls, and it now hung over her shoulders with a distinct green-black sheen. "Your friends are so nice," she said.

Evan nodded. "I am fortunate to be in good company."

While the dinner had gone well, Melida seemed to enjoy smaller company over a large group. She admitted a preference for keeping to herself, even though she loved spending time with people. When Evan had offered to allow her time to herself, she protested and said she didn't mind his company.

Melida breathed in the night air, smiling up at the starry sky. A warm breeze blew over them, ruffling the hem of her long dress. "I just love it up here, at this time of night," she said, turning to him. "It's so peaceful."

Evan looked out at the rolling dunes that faded into the dark horizon. All around them it looked as though they were held in a dark vacuum, caught in a bubble in time. Only the tiny lights of distant towns and mountain villages gave a hint of more out there.

"I love the moment the stars fill the sky," Melida went on. "You can see them better out here, than in a city where there's too much light."

The sky looked so different from Evan's homeland. Strange constellations, but also emptier and less colourful. He missed his moons and the defining markers that made up his region of space. The only sky he'd ever known.

"You seem distracted," Melida said after a moment, taking another sip of her wine. She attempted a casual air, but Evan heard the careful concern in her words.

He studied his own wine glass, lost in thought, and eventually said, "My fears are weighing me down." After a silence he added. "I worry what kind of future awaits me."

The future that awaited him. He couldn't tell her why Reisa's mind was broken, and how that was tied to his own future. For some reason. it didn't feel right for him to even say Reisa's name in Melida's company. He knew the future what lay before him; he had seen it on that fateful night in Moon Bay. But he would not bring himself to fully believe it.

He turned to her. "I feel like I am wasting my time here, becoming distracted in the affairs of a local criminal, while my people remain homeless and my land under a tyrants rule."

"You're still on the journey you set out for. It just looks a little different to what you expected"

She had responded so quickly and easily, but what did she know of his experiences and goals? Simply hearing someone's story did not make them understand. There was no one in the galaxy that could understand him.