Yet she knew, even if this were her fate, the man before her would always treat her as he had: respectfully, honorably, dutifully.
"What is it?" he asked as she gazed at him.
"I'm not like you, A'Ran," she found herself saying. "Or your women."
"I know this."
"No, I mean, I'm nothing like you! Your duty is all you really seem focused on."
"You will learn."
"I don't know that I want to learn," she said, troubled. "If I must learn to be dutiful from you, what will you learn from me, or am I expected to be the only one to compromise?"
He faced her fully, studying her for a long moment.
"What would you have me learn?" he asked in the same wary tone.
Affection. Love. Things a man battling for his planet neither had time for nor needed. They seemed like silly emotions when compared to the enormity of his task, and yet, she didn't think she could survive without them.
"I don't know," she said. "I won't keep you any longer."
And she walked away without another word, confused as to why she had wanted him to say there was more to why he chose her than because it was his duty. She wanted him to say he felt the same thing when he looked at her as she did when she looked at him.
A'Ran's penetrating gaze nearly burnt a hole through her shoulder blades.
She didn't have much time alone to mull their conversation or her troubled thoughts. Ne'Rin sent for her less than an hour later with vague explanations of meeting a visitor. Kiera hid a second translator in her pocket and exited the sprawling house to join him. He turned on his heel as soon as she appeared and strode toward the small area beneath a tree where spacecraft traditionally hovered to release their occupants.
Unwilling to appease the man she didn't like, she made no effort to match his pace. She trailed instead, eyes on the much smaller craft hovering near the tree. It was a single occupant transport ship whose passenger stood several feet from it and looked familiar from a distance.
She heard the runner before she saw him and watched as one of the warriors breezed past her toward Ne'Rin. He caught Ne'Rin before he met the visitor, and the two stopped. She approached, but Ne'Rin headed back to her with the messenger.
"Wait here. Do not greet him," Ne'Rin commanded her.