ZER

EPILOGUE

"Where to?" Lor asks from behind me.

There are a total of thirty Tzarian who are agreed to come with me. Among them are my most trusty friends and warriors. Lor, the ex-High Minister of Inter-race Affair. Gra, the ex-High Minister of Agriculture and Energy, Mer the ex-High Minister of Education. Kil, my most trustworthy, strongest warrior, Dre, my best tracker, and master of tactic. Jer, the best weaponry maker and annalists in Tzar, are among those who are loyal to me.

Relish. I tell him.

Lor is acting as the captain of this ship. He raises his eyebrows as I tell him. "Are you suggesting us to go to the dead star?"

Of course not. I'm telling you we're going there.

"That'd be a suicide." He tells me.

"No." Kil answers. "It won't be a suicide."

He knows.

"If it does I won't be here now," Kil adds.

"What do you mean?" Lor asks him.

Kil exchanges a look with me before he answers. "The High General and I have been there before."

No other words are spoken. It's true. Kil and I had been entering the Relish's atmosphere before, and what we witnessed, we swear not to tell a soul. Since then I always have a strange pull towards the star, I know Kil too because he always asks me if we're going to any spying mission soon. We know what that means, when we came back from the star we informed the councils that we were on a spying mission, which they took without a second thought.

That'd be all from me.

I turn around to where my heart has been calling me.

If any of you dare to bother me before the star comes in view, I will kill you. I tell them in my head.

They all know that I mean it because now they realized there is nothing more important for me than the soft call of my wife in my head.

Come here. I hear she says as if I'm under the spell my legs lead me to her. I don't know in which room is she now, but my body seems to know. So when I open the door and I see her in the middle of the room, looking more fragile than she ever was, I know that my life is complete.

She circles her boney arm around my waist and holds me tight.

"I've missed you." She whispers against my chest.

Not more than I did. I reply. My thumb follows the prominent structure on her face painfully. She is very thin, she is sickly thin.

You should eat.

But she only shakes her head. "I just need to be with you. I feel so much better already." She holds my hand on her face and brings it to her lips for a kiss.

I cannot see you like this any longer. I swoop her up against my chest. Please, eat for me.

She bit her lip and holds on tight "Only if you promise to stay with me."

I squeeze her lightly. Nothing can separate us anymore.

Her eyes searching any lie in me.

I promise.