21

  Once they were in the privacy of Volusa's personal cabin with the door closed behind them, Sabina allowed herself to begin to panic. She wasn't glowing anymore. Maybe Edric wouldn't be able to figure anything out after all. And what if he did find something out and it was terrible? What if the light from her chest was the same cursed glow of active Astral artifacts? Was she cursing people just by being around them?

  Edric didn't notice her distress because he was busy glaring at Volusa's bed. He clutched his fin. "See if you can find a clean sheet," he said. "I'll strip the bed."

  The shark's practicality helped pull Sabina back to reality. She looked around the cabin, trying to figure out where the captain might keep her linens, while Edric got to work. The bed was shoved against the back wall and bolted to the floor. Beside it were Volusa's wardrobes, which the princess thought was quite odd since Volusa hardly ever wore more than ribbons. At the foot of the bed was a large chest, which is where Sabina decided to start her search.

  "Why would Volusa keep so much rope in her cabin?" Sabina asked after she opened the chest. "Wouldn't it make more sense to keep it with the ship's supplies? And are these bridles?"

  Edric paused in his work and looked at her with a wide frown. "I wouldn't touch anything in there if I were you," he said.

  "Why?" Sabina asked. Then she remembered how Volusa had described Gleb's evaluation and let the lid of the chest fall shut. She rapped on the lid of the chest several times, eyes shut, before she opened it back up, shoved the ropes and bridles and harnesses out of the way, and pulled a folded sheet out from the bottom of the chest.

  Edric looked at the sheet when she offered it to him with the same frown as before. He shook his head. "Well, it's cleaner than these, I suppose," he said, tossing the stained sheets from the bed into the far corner of the cabin.

  Together the two of them made the bed. "Alright," Edric said when they were done. "Lie down, please. And… If you're okay with it, it'd be beneficial to my examination if you were to take off your strophium. It would let me see your glow a bit better. But again, only if you're okay with that."

  Sabina nodded and began to loosen her breastwrap. "Of course," she said. "I trust you. Do you want me to remove my subligar as well?"

  "Please, gods, do not," Edric said, not looking at her. The sudden blush that darkened Edric's pale cheeks surprised her. She'd grown accustomed to only being able to see Dalibor's blushes on the bare skin inside his ears. She'd been away from other humans… Other Homines far too long. She cocked her head as the shark continued to babble. "Not that I don't want to see… I mean, not that I think you're ugly or… You're very beautiful, of course. I think so, at least. Anybody would think so, I mean. But you don't… If you want… I don't need you to…" He slapped himself and took a deep breath. "The Argent Flask doesn't provide training in… Well, anything your subligar would cover."

  Sabina chuckled. "Because I'm a woman?" she asked.

  The shark opened his mouth and then closed it again, head tilted to the side. "That's an interesting question, actually," he said. "I guess I did receive training in the sorts of things my subligar covers. But only in terms of trauma response. Like if something got severed or crushed or ruptured." He shuddered. "The ruptured bit was the worst. I don't think I ate for two days afterwards without it coming back up. Not even swimming helped. But we're combat medics, so we're trained in combat injuries, and there's not a lot under your subligar to injure. At least, not that'd be very different than treating a slash or stabbing anywhere else on the body. I assume, at least." Sabina watched him while he talked, and she saw the exact instant that he realized he'd been staring at her crotch. Shortly after he also noticed that she'd already removed her strophium and was standing there topless while he rambled. He turned away again and cleared his throat. "Sorry," he squeaked and cleared his throat again. "You can lie down now."

  "You don't need to apologize," Sabina said as she laid down on the bed. "You obviously care a great deal about what you do."

  "I do," he said. "I take this very seriously. So if anything feels wrong or uncomfortable or awkward, please let me know. I really do want to help you."

  "It'll probably be easier if you look at me," she said. Edric's shoulders drooped. He grabbed a chair from the table and brought it to the bedside. His silvery eyes flashed white in the light of the lantern while he walked across the room. His eyes, though more inhuman than any other Aspect she'd met, really were very striking. But was inhuman the right word? The Sior were human too, after all. She wondered how much else she was going to have to relearn.

  Their gazes met once Edric had sat down, and they spent some time just looking at each other. "I won't shatter if you touch me, Edric," Sabina said eventually.

  "I know," he said. "I know. I know! It's just… You're so small that I'm afraid I'll hurt you without meaning too. And it's been a long time since I worked on a Homin, so I'm a little nervous." He took a deep breath, shook out his hands, and nodded. "Okay. I'm going to perform a visual exam first, just to see if there's anything obviously unusual before I start actually poking around, okay?

  "Of course," Sabina said.

  And Edric began. He started with her arms, which he had her lift so he could see them from all sides. Then he checked her legs and had her sit up so he could see her back. Then she laid back down and he turned his attention to the front of her torso. He put a pair of fingers close to the top of her belly, just below her ribcage, but did not touch her. "That's an odd place for a scar," he said.

  "It's always been there," she told him. "I figured it was a birthmark."

  "Hmm…" the shark grunted, then continued his examination. Sabina felt a little odd having a giant shark man inspecting her bare breasts at rather close range but set the feeling aside. Edric had made it quite clear that it was just as awkward for him, and if he could be professional about it, so could she. Soon he asked her to sit up again. "I'd like to listen to your chest, and it's easier through your back. No breasts, and all."

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  Sabina sat up. "Now that you mention it," she said. "How do you hear? You don't have ears."

  Edric chuckled and tapped a pair of tiny holes just behind his eyes. "I do have ears," he said. "They're just internal. They work better underwater, granted, but I can hear well enough above water too."

  "Is that another reason you need to swim so often?" Sabina asked.

  "Not really. That's more for my stomach. And my gills," he said. He lowered one side of his ever-present scarf for just a moment to show off the set of gills on the side of his neck. "I try to keep them covered so they stay at least a little damp. They get really scratchy if they dry out, which just makes my stomach even worse. Now quiet, please. Breathe normally."

  Sabina gasped when he pressed the side of his head to her back. His skin was cool to the touch and surprisingly smooth. She focused on breathing normally, but her heart felt like it had begun to race. Edric moved his head a couple times to listen from different places. Then he rapped her back. "That's odd," he said.

  "What's odd?" Sabina asked.

  "Give me just another minute," he said. "Can you take some deep breaths for me?" She complied, and he grunted again. "Okay, that's enough. You can lie back down."

  "What's odd?" she asked again.

  "Well," he said, leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms. "Your lungs are clear, so that's good. And your heart sounds healthy. Faster than normal, but I get that you're nervous. But there's definitely something solid in there near your heart."

  "You can hear that?" she asked.

  He chuckled. "Not hear, really," he said. "I doubt a Homin medic could feel it. But I have a separate Sior sense in here." He tapped his broad snout. "I don't really know how to describe it. But your heart feels wrong. There's something else in there with it. It's pressing against the beat."

  "Something that glows," Sabina said.

  Edric nodded. "Something radiant," he said.

  "Like…" Sabina said, shivering. "Like the cursed relics?"

  "It's the same light," Edric confirmed. "And you say it's always been there?"

  "As long as I can remember, yes," she told him.

  He shook his head. "I don't know why it hasn't killed you then," he said. They were both silent for a time, the shark staring at Sabina's bare chest, and her frowning back up at him. Eventually, Edric sighed. "Well, good news first. I know that whatever it is, it's inside your ribcage, so I don't have to…" He gestured at her chest. "I don't have to fondle you to find it."

  "Why do you say that's good news?" Sabina asked. Gods help her, why had she said that? She'd been spending too much time with Simend and Volusa.

  Edric's tail thrashed about through the opening at the back of the chair. "I didn't want to do that to you," he said.

  "You don't want to touch me?" she asked. She realized then that she was hurt. Emotionally, at least. Were Homines too disgusting to touch for the other Aspects? Or was it just her?

  "I—" Edric took a sharp breath. "Whatever I might want… Whatever I don't want… Sara, you are my patient. Everything else is secondary to that. If something isn't medically necessary, I'm not going to do it."

  "Oh," she said. "Okay. Sorry."

  "Don't apologize," said Edric. "However, all that said, the bad news is that… The other news is that I do need to touch you again. I'm going to try and light up whatever is in there, so I'll have to put my augmented hand on your chest. Is that okay?"

  "Yes," she said. "Please."

  He nodded and placed his Astral hand lightly between her breasts. Though the shark's other hand had been cold, the bare metal was surprisingly warm. The sigils within the crystals began to glow as they had before, up and down opposite sides of his arm. Their cerulean radiance gleamed brilliantly inside the dim cabin. Soon, her chest began to glow in turn, a constant, golden glow that illuminated her ribs from within. She could feel the warmth of the glow. Edric leaned closer and looked at her chest from both sides of his arm. "There it is," he said. "Right there beneath your sternum and beside your heart. Illumination is enough to pass through skin and organs but not bones. Definitely gold, similar color to what I'd associate with a sinistral inversion. Maybe a bit richer. There's no symbiote in there, though. Just radiance. And something solid that's casting the glow. Maybe a raw crystal? How would that not kill you, though? Is it just light and not actual radiance? I can't detect any of the corruption I normally sense with radiance curses. I can tell my symbiote doesn't like it though, which is weird. I don't know what that means." He leaned back and crossed his arms again, and the glow died away. He drummed his fingers against his side. "That scar still bugs me. It's definitely not a birthmark. I've seen plenty of scars just like that. It's from a puncture wound. I'm certain of it."

  "It's always been there, though," Sabina said, putting her hand over the mark.

  Edric looked her in the eyes. "Sara," he said. "Whatever is inside your chest? You weren't born with it. Somebody had to have put it there. And if you say that mark has always been there, then they must have shoved it inside you when you were very little."

  Sabina felt ill. "My parents must have known," she said. Edric did not respond, which was fine, because Sabina could hear nothing but her own thoughts. Maybe that was why her father wanted her dead. He wanted what was inside her. No, not just dead. Presented to the Star. They'd planned to sacrifice her before the major relic in Cibalae then transport her body into Sarmatia. She looked at Edric. "What's in Sarmatia that's connected to the Star?"

  "I've no idea. I've never been to Sarmatia," said Edric.

  "My father planned to hand me over to the Star Cult so they could sacrifice me to a relic and carry my body into Sarmatia, but I don't know why," she said.

  Edric's eyes grew very wide. "That is a phenomenal reason that you should never go to Sarmatia," he said.

  "But I need to know," Sabina replied. "I have to know what's inside me."

  "Are you open to other ideas?" Edric asked.

  "You're just trying to talk me out of this," Sabina said.

  "I am not," Edric said, raising his hands. "I get that this is important to you. I want to know what that thing is too. But charging off to gods-know-where in Sarmatia, of all places, when we know the Star Cult is there and looking to rip your chest open is maybe not the best course of action."

  Sabina sighed. "What do you have in mind?" she asked.

  "Come home to Meleko with Sim and me," Edric told her. "Our boss, Kamissa, knows more about Astral relics than anybody in the Ring. She's the one who gave Sim and me our symbiotes." He flexed his metallic hand. "If there's anybody who can figure this out without ripping your chest open? It's going to be her. And if she doesn't already know, she's probably smart enough to find a way to figure it out."

  Sabina had to admit that it wasn't an awful idea. And Edric was right. Charging off into Sarmatia without knowing at all what she was looking for or even where she was going really was kind of an awful idea, no matter how much she really wanted to do it. It wasn't as though Sarmatia was a small island, and what wasn't wilderness was infested with bears. She caught that thought as soon as it appeared and squashed it. Of course there were bears in Sarmatia. That was where the Urstae originated, and the Urstae were people, not beasts or animals. She wondered how long her first thoughts about the other Aspects would be like that. Wondered if she'd ever manage to be better than what her father made her into. If Edric's serrated teeth and piscine eyes would ever not frighten her. "Alright," she said. "We'll go back to your place then. How long will it take to get to Meleko?"

  "Well…" Edric said, rubbing at the scarf over his gills. "It's kind of far."