"Elder. There is someone here who wishes to see you," Mau-Nis says.

  N-Vorl and Glotis turn to stare at the stoic warrior standing in the chamber doorway, their prior conversation interrupted. From the look on Mau-Nis' face, all is not well. N-Vorl takes a step toward his bemused eril'k.

  "What is it, Mau-Nis? Who is here? If it is another elder with a silly grievance, you may send them away."

  "It is not an elder, N-Vorl. However, it is someone you may…Or may not…Wish to see."

  Glotis comes to stand beside N-Vorl, placing a hand on his right bicep. She appeals to Mau-Nis in a semi-impatient voice.

  "Who is it, Mau-Nis? We don't have a lot of time for games. We still have several warrior candidates to interview. They are arriving on Yautja Prime as we speak."

  "It might be better...If I showed her in," Mau-Nis says without much enthusiasm.

  Mau-Nis exits the meeting chamber and briefly disappears. Another figure appears in the doorway. Baileinahk.

  The female cultivator, N-Vorl's first love, enters the meeting chamber and stops only a few feet inside the doorway. She glances from Elder N-Vorl to Eldress Glotis with weary eyes. N-Vorl's mouth falls open and his eyes widen, causing Baileinahk to avert her gaze.

  Glotis clears her throat and peers at N-Vorl with a knowing grin. She removes her hand from N-Vorl's bicep and steps away.

  "I will be in my private quarters, N-Vorl. Inform me when you have concluded your business. We can continue the recruitment exercises then. Mau-Nis knows where to find me."

  The doors to the chamber slide soundlessly shut behind Eldress Glotis. Baileinahk shifts her weight from one foot to the other, still refusing to meet N-Vorl's gaze. Despite their past history, and the intensity of his prior emotions for this particular yautja female, N-Vorl finds himself growing incensed. Why does she choose to visit him now? What could she possibly be hoping to gain by seeking an audience with him? After all of these cycles of a season.

  "What is it that you want, Baileinahk?" N-Vorl demands in an impatient tone. "I have much business to conduct. I do not have time for trips down memory lane."

  Baileinahk finally meets the youthful elder's gaze. She takes several steps forward, until she is less than two feet away from N-Vorl.

  "When you left our home, you were angry with me. You never gave me a chance to explain."

  "You had your chance," N-Vorl counters, his voice rising with anger. "When I returned to tend to my mother and cultivate more chruksh. You did not refute my beliefs then. I do not want to hear your arguments now. Now, you have something to say? Now, that I am Clan Elder?"

  "That's not fair, N-Vorl!" Baileinahk protests, fury straining her voice. "You never gave me an opportunity. You stormed around the habitat, telling anyone who would listen how I had betrayed you. How I had shamed you before your new elder...Elder Glandis...And your kin. You were wrathful toward not only me but Ochiuho. You would not listen to my reasons. All you've ever known is anger. Ochiuho was a good listener. He did not rage about the unfairness of the universe. What you saw, was only Ochiuho comforting me. You saw what you wanted to see. So, I continued to let him comfort me…After you left me again. And now, my Ochiuho is dead. Killed on a hunt planet three cycles ago—.”

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  "Ah! Now, we get to the real reason for your visit," N-Vorl says with a cruel sneer. "Your cultivator lover is dead. Now, you return to me. The lover you cast away so many cycles of the moon ago. Now, I am worthy of your love. It is too late. I no longer want, or have need of it. Crawl back to your habitat and find another cultivator to listen and comfort you. I do not have the time."

  "Stop it, N-Vorl! You have no need to be cruel!"

  "You dare order me, Baileinahk? I am no longer a cultivator or a simple hunter. I am Clan Elder. I don't have to listen to you."

  "What has happened to you, N-Vorl? Even after your father's shame...You still managed to keep your civility. I don't recognize this N-Vorl. The being you have become. I don't think I have for a long time."

  "You happened to me, Baileinahk. I loved you. And you said you loved me. To find you in the arms of Ochiuho was the greatest of betrayals. I sacrificed many cycles of the moon, and gave up my hunter's creed for you. Only for you to betray me. Never did I expect such cruelty from you."

  "You never listen, N-Vorl. I have already told you...That is not what you observed. Ochiuho and I had only embraced for a moment before you entered our favored place. Our cultivator team was given a brief report of the casualties on Yultimavo. No one was sure which yautja hunters had survived the battle. Because you were not an original member of Elder Glandis' contingent, there was confusion as to whether or not you had lived. That is all you saw, N-Vorl. Ochiuho only meant to comfort me. We believed that you had been killed. It was only after you flew into a rage and left...Seemingly, for good...That I began to entertain having any kind of love affair with Ochiuho. By then, you had already assumed there was one. Without giving me a chance to defend myself. Later, I found love and favor with him. And we were joined. You drove me to Ochiuho. I did not betray you. I loved you, N-Vorl. You were just too angry to see it. You wanted to believe that everyone and everything was against you. Even me."

  Baileinahk grows tense as N-Vorl takes a step in her direction. Her eyes widen as the young elder reaches up a hand to touch her face. He allows his eyes to wander over her feminine form, a lot more filled out than it had been when they were both much younger. His mind tells him that her words are clever lies, but his body tells him to simply ignore the words screaming in his brain.

  Without another moment of thought or hesitation, N-Vorl pulls Baileinahk to him. The surprised yautja female tenses even more but does not struggle. N-Vorl presses his cheek against Baileinahk's and draws in her scent. The assault on his olfactory senses is just as he remembered it, intense and full of the promise of extreme pleasure.

  Running a clawed hand down Baileinahk's back, N-Vorl brings her even closer. He allows his eyes to flutter shut. Baileinahk does the same.

  "I want to go with you, N-Vorl. To seed the kredonyit planet. I must go with you."

  N-Vorl withdraws and stares questioningly down at Baileinahk's face.

  "I cannot allow you to do that."

  "Why not?"

  "Because, I cannot. You must trust me on this. It is for the best."

  "Still, you push me away? After everything I have just told you?"

  "It is not what you think. I am not the same yautja who left you many cycles of the moon ago."

  "You could've fooled me!"

  Wrenching free of N-Vorl, Baileinahk shoots him a defeated glare. She backs slowly away from him.

  "I should have known you would never change. I wanted to believe I was wrong."

  Baileinahk hurries from the meeting chamber in a flurry of pink and purple cultivator robes. N-Vorl stares after her with a solemn expression, but does not chase her. Why should he? On V’Daha, there is a vil'par waiting for him. Baileinahk's entreaties are irrelevant.