Alien General's Chosen: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) Page 3

  Most singers became famous when they emerged from school, but stories of Leiya’s voice and her songs made her a star long before that. The practice concerts where she sang were always sold out, and many demanded to see more of her. They said she might be the next Ebanaya or even Relya. Leiya’s heart skipped a beat every time she heard those names mentioned alongside hers. They’d been on the stages longer than she had lived. Being compared to them was a compliment unlike any other.

  And while she rose to stardom, Leiya began to love life more and more. In her own way, she was quickly becoming the symbol of all “weird” Brions. Those who didn’t consider seeing someone die in the arena a form of entertainment. And her songs became a symbol of that, a drug the Brions didn't seem to get enough of.

  Right from the start, Leiya knew she was as hated as she was loved by the other artists. While she would have never expressed it out loud, she thought the criticism justified. They all sounded the same. Their voices were beautiful, but boring. The songs pretty, but predictable. It was another example of the way Brions liked things to remain the same.

  Leiya changed that and her audiences adored it. No one called the others boring before she came along, but they did then. She was pushing music out of the ways it had been in for as long as anyone could remember.

  She was so unique, they said, it was as if she wasn't a real Brion.

  Leiya became famous enough that when she finished her studies, she had a phrase named after her. When someone was bubbly and never truly stood still for a moment, they called it being “Leiya-like”.

  Leiya was smart enough to know not everyone meant that as a compliment. In school everyone had loved her, but when she got home it became more obvious. To her credit, she didn’t care. Not in the sort of dark “so what, I don’t care anyway” kind of way. More like “if they got to know me, they wouldn’t think so, and I hope one day they do” way. The Leiya way.

  Her father made the mistake of asking, “How was it?” when she got home. He was clearly not prepared for Leiya actually answering.

  “It was the most amazing thing,” she said, smiling so widely her lips hurt.

  “We learned everything. I know you’ll say you find that hard to believe, but we really did learn everything we could, about singing at least. Do you remember how I broke all the glasses when I sang on the balcony? I know now what I did wrong, I won’t do it again. I can make them just vibrate now, it’s really pretty when they do that…”

  She went on for several minutes before her father finally stopped her with a gentle smile and a sweep of his hand.

  Leiya felt a bit embarrassed.

  “And how have you and mother been?” she asked quickly. “How’s the new High Senator?”

  There was a crease on his father’s brow that had definitely not been there before.

  “This whole Rhea mess has taken a toll on all of us,” he said simply. “With Eren gone, it’s better. But the generals won’t forget.”

  Leiya nodded slowly. It didn’t need to be guessed what she thought of the generals. She felt uncomfortable even around warriors, but the generals were the most vicious of them. So much blood on their way up, so much death… She shuddered. Of course she’d heard of the whole Rhea dispute, even in school. High Senator Eren, whom she’d never met, had almost destroyed all of them. Only the intervention of Diego Grothan and his supporters saved them from a full-blown war with the Galactic Union. Leiya was grateful for that, but of course it hadn’t been a bloodless coup. Generals Diego and Faren had executed the traitors without mercy.

  She’d also heard of the rift within the senator ranks. The High Senator she’d met, Primen, had been among Eren’s most loyal supporters. It seemed he’d known when to switch sides so he hadn’t gotten caught in the brutal killing. The aftermath had reduced the number of senators to half for sure. Her father had taken the side of peace, although Leiya didn’t doubt it cost him a lot to do that.

  It had been one of her proudest days when she heard that her father had been right in the eyes of the Elders. Never one to be silent, she told him that.

  For a long moment, her father just looked at her.

  “Little spark, you’ve grown,” he said at last. There was such kindness in his voice that for a moment, even Leiya was robbed of all words.

  “I have,” she admitted. “I’m Leiya now.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Faren

  His life had always been drenched in blood.

  The blood was very rarely his own, but for all their skill, the twins weren’t immortal or invulnerable. Diego seemed to be heading that way, though.

  They made a name for themselves long before they finished their military training. Everyone was expecting great things from them, for the good of all the Brions.

  And still – like always – people shunned them, as much as they dared at least.

  For as time passed, how much they differed from others only became more obvious. It was noticed when neither of them wanted to use the Brion battle spear, a signature weapon of their species. Even Diego asked them to reconsider, but after a firm “no”, he backed away. Faren knew their friend disapproved, but he respected him for not pressing it further. The spears just weren’t for them.

  The only explanation they ever gave came from Gawen when someone got on his nerves about the matter. Not a remarkable feat in itself, but Faren agreed wholeheartedly with his twin’s snappy response. They would be much more use to the Brions alive rather than dead with an “honorable” weapon in their hands. Diego was said to have laughed when he heard that.

  As for their choices, Faren’s was at least okay by Brion standards. Both him and Gawen had grown taller than most of the warriors they trained with. The huge battle ax fitted into his hand much better than the flimsy spear. He knew the spear wasn’t really flimsy in the least, but the weight of the ax in his palm felt right.

  It was worse with Gawen. The Brions were a species that favored close combat. They saw it as a true match of one warrior against another in a fight for life or death. Other than the long range weaponry on the battle ships, the Brions almost never used firearms. Gawen chose guns for his weapon.

  The farther away from everyone else they got, the closer they seemed to be.

  Ironically, the sense of unity present in every Brion was also completely there. While they struggled to connect to any other Brion besides Diego on a personal level, they felt more strongly about the Brions as a whole. It was a fundamental truth that all Brions were one, and they believed firmly that.

  Underneath all that, the Brion rage burned in them, unseen in one and ignored in the other.

  Ever since the dark days of their history, the Brions had had to fight their own volatile natures as well as their enemies. In the past, their Elders said, the Brions had almost destroyed themselves by fighting each other. There was a fire in them, a longing for battle that had nothing to do with motive, or need, or any other reasoning but war itself. It was considered a very bad sign to see it manifest in someone. War was supposed to be means to an end, not a desirable outcome in itself.

  Faren believed that.

  The fire was seen clearly in Gawen, but it was deemed controllable. Many Brions had a temper as fierce as his, although they weren’t as dangerous as his considerable might. Basically, someone always kept an eye on him to see the moment he slipped the leash of reason. But Gawen wasn’t a fool, not truly.

  No one ever really suspected the rage in Faren. In truth, he thought the only one who kept an eye on him was Diego.

  Once, Faren asked him about that.

  Diego shrugged.

  “I think they’re all fools,” he said. “They look for the obvious answer. So easy to see Crane was mad. That’s the clear rage. But I’ve seen you in a fight and the moments when the fury takes you. It’s not rage then, it’s just a sort of emptiness.”

  Faren waited patiently. If he was a threat to the Brions, he would step aside himself.

  “Do you think I�
�m a danger?” he asked.

  Diego smiled, reminding Faren of the boy he’d befriended.

  “If I thought that, I would already have dealt with you.”

  And as before, his brutal honesty brought the slightest of smiles to Faren’s lips. That was the reason he liked Diego. He could always be trusted to do the right thing, not to hide behind pretense. He appreciated that. Faren did not like fools.

  The rumors started with the valor squares. All Brion warriors wore them, the bright crystals implanted into their flesh along the neck, connected to their nervous system. They were everything to a warrior. Signs of rank and bravery, proof of their victories. It was their communication system, a true and honest one, which showed their emotions in battle.

  They pulsed the warrior’s state of mind out to the world, making it imperative they always remained strong and sure. They were also challenges to their enemies. In battle, they sent out sound and light to attract the enemies, whichever they responded to.

  As Faren and Gawen rose in the ranks of the armies, their might became known. The implantation of the squares was as painful a procedure as any real battle they might ever face, but they never let it show. Gawen merely growled, and Faren remained silent throughout. The lines of squares rose up their necks as they won more glory, more duels and only kept going. They entered battles among the first and emerged among the last. Coming back with their weapons as bloody as themselves to show they had been in the thick of fighting.

  They were no longer merely known to the armies. As their fame became recognized all across Briolina, their home planet, the rumors began. The most prevailing story was that he and Gawen had gone mad. They’d allowed the squares be implanted into their necks too high up, almost to their brows, that much was true.

  But it was also said that had messed something up in their brains and was why one of them was cold to the point of uncaring and the other a raging brute. They did nothing to stop those rumors. Let the others think what they wanted, it didn’t stop them from doing their duty. On the contrary, the more unbelievable rumors went around about them, the more their enemies feared them.

  Fearing what they might become together, they were ultimately separated.

  Fifteen great battle ships formed the mighty Brion army, each commanded by a general. It wasn’t the Brion way to appoint generals, they had to fight for their position. Each meeting aboard was held at an arena, where the officers from the lowest to the general himself accepted challenges for their position. When Faren and Gawen were stationed aboard one ship each, it was considered a death sentence.

  Blood marked their climb up the ranks, as was the Brion way. They would have been the youngest generals ever if it wasn’t for Diego.

  The first seed of doubt in Faren’s heart appeared when he heard what his brother had named his ship. All the generals renamed their ships to their choosing. In the Brion language, which constantly changed, it was difficult to nail anything down. The galaxy and the Galactic Union in particular shortened the names, which got the gist of them. Diego’s ship was known as the Triumphant, Faren’s own the Unbroken. But Gawen… was calling his battle ship the Fearless.

  It was only after he’d heard the new name that Faren thought it might have been better if they hadn’t taken his twin away from him. Had he forgotten? Being fearless wasn’t a good thing. Those who didn’t fear were blind to the world. They’d all become generals, but that didn’t mean one day they couldn’t meet the same fate as their predecessors when another, younger and stronger, came to challenge their rank. Or an enemy, for that matter. Faren was disappointed.

  Then they found out about Rhea, not long before the rest of the galaxy did.

  The Galactic Union, where the Brions now belonged after being denied many times for their violent nature, discovered their harvest world, Rhea. It was the source of almost everything the Brions needed that their own planet hadn’t gifted them with. It provided food, minerals, metals, and so on. It made them the superpower they were.

  The senators, the rulers of Briolina and the Brions while their Elders rested in their meditative stasis-sleep, had tried to hide it as long as they could. All of the other known worlds similarly rich were common property among the Union. If it were discovered the Brions had hidden one – and one as rich as Rhea – there would be war.

  And Diego found himself right in the middle of a brewing civil war. Faren watched with detached curiosity as the situation unfolded around his friend. Right before it all went down, Diego had found his gesha at last, a human at that. The Brion fated couples – the gesha and the gerion – were sacred to them. No one questioned it, but it was still historic for one of them not to be a Brion. She was a researcher bound for Rhea, which put her in the middle of the entire mess. Things began to move with dizzying speed.

  And Faren and Gawen were given the order to kill them both, declaring Diego a traitor to all Brions.

  Setting course for the Triumphant, which made no true attempt to flee from them, Faren found himself confused for the first time in his life.

  Diego wasn’t a traitor, he knew that. He couldn’t believe the only person he’d ever called a friend would do anything to harm the Brions. Not killing his gesha wasn’t a crime either – it would have been unthinkable. Something was wrong, but Faren didn’t know what.

  It became obvious soon enough.

  He hadn’t seen his twin for a while, but they found their easy sync at once. They went to meet Diego on the Triumphant, showing they had no fear of him. For the sake of their old friendship, they agreed, Diego would be allowed to explain. Then they would do what had to be done, for all Brions.

  What Diego had to say tore Faren’s world apart, though like always, none of it showed.

  He’d known there were those who didn’t want to part with Rhea. Of course they didn’t, it would have meant a terrible loss. Even more so, the Brions didn’t bow to anyone. The Elders, in their wisdom, knew they needed the Union and couldn’t have the entire galaxy as their enemies. But it still felt like surrendering to some of them.

  It was more surprising, but not unbelievable that the senators – or High Senator Eren – had been leading them on to war. Diego named the scheming senator the traitor. They’d been playing his game for a long while, hiding Rhea while they should have shared it with the galaxy. Now they were only left with options bad and worse with good nowhere to be found.

  And then Faren saw the rage Diego had once called obvious bursting forth from Gawen. In his own mind, the only question was what to do now so as not to have the Union’s collective armies marching against Briolina. That was a fight that could only leave the entire galaxy in ruins, with the victor being the one who the still drew breath. Against popular belief, the Brions didn’t desire war, they were simply good at it.

  He had been certain Gawen would agree, but there was the rage, come to surface at last.

  It left Faren speechless for the first time in his life. Not because he didn’t think it necessary to speak, but because he didn’t have the words to describe the pain that brought. A look from Diego was all he needed for confirmation – he saw it too.

  “We are Brions,” his twin was snarling. “We don’t disobey the Elders.”

  “I don’t believe I am. I think High Senator Eren speaks for himself alone. The Elders wanted us to be in the Union, why would they jeopardize it now?” Diego said calmly, but Faren knew that calm well.

  It was Diego’s secret, one he understood but could never reproduce. Diego was amazingly good at making himself into a powerful storm of a warrior, like they all. But while others surrendered a part of their control to the battle lust – Faren had only to look beside him to see his twin lost in it – Diego was the eye of the storm, always in control.

  “We are Brions!” Gawen was thundering now, repeating a thought that had been hammered into his head, but which he clearly no longer understood.

  “We fear no one! We are the mightiest of them, yet you would cower from them! You have lost
your spine, Diego.”

  Faren could barely listen. The pain of Gawen being a traitor to everything they’d been taught was enough to shake even him. Diego was right. They couldn’t let it come to war, but Gawen clearly disagreed.

  He saw Diego’s intentions long before his friend actually drew his spear. It gave him a few moments, just heartbeats, to make up his mind. Together they could overpower Diego, even if he had won against them in single combat. They could do it – the two of them, always different, always only having each other, one mind in two bodies.

  Only Gawen was wrong. He was a threat to all Brions now.

  When Diego charged, Faren remained motionless. Arms crossed over his chest, he stayed still as they fought. He only watched, refusing to look away even when he knew which would prevail.

  Diego had always been the best of them.

  Faren had thought he would feel fury when Gawen died, a sense of revenge, something sharp at least. All he felt was emptiness, a sense of truly being alone. As his twin’s lifeless body slumped to the ground, Diego standing over it with more regret in his eyes than there was in Faren’s, he just felt nothing. There was only him left.

  His only friend looked at him, breathing heavily, the fight still singing in his blood. The valor squares lit up his face, but there was no fear in his eyes.

  “I thought you would agree,” Diego said.

  Always the one to speak the harshest truths, expecting everyone to be as true as he was. Giving no quarter, because he asked for none.

  “I did,” was all Faren said to that.

  In the days that followed Gawen’s death, he barely had a moment to consider the sense of emptiness he felt. He accompanied Diego to Briolina and fought beside him for all Brions as was his duty.

  It was a risk to expose their lie to the Union themselves, but it paid off. After all, the High Senator and all who agreed with him were dead, most by Faren and Diego’s hands.