The Ilia's lovers - Chapter Nine

Please be aware, this is a first draft of The Ilia's Lovers. That means this hasn't been edited. There will be multiple errors and even consistency errors. Feel free to share comments highlighting them, but you don't need to contact me personally, unless you see a major consistency error. Please also remember, this book has been written in three parts across three different years due to the health concerns I've had since 2023. Thanks for understanding.

Harumi Watanabe was a spectacularly beautiful human.

She was tall, willowy, graceful, with wide eyes, which were a warm brown. A long, refined and gently curved nose and full lips, bottom fuller than the top. There was a controlled elegance to the way she walked, with natural delicacy and reserved movement which exhibited a grace Hadith had seen in few people.

The ship, which transported Harumi, took off almost as soon as she was offloaded, off to another of Thanesh’s jobs.

Dahnus was busy, so Hadith welcomed her, standing on the private family landing pad.

They walked into the palace while servants moved her meagre belongings into a suite close to Elaine’s.

Harumi insisted on seeing Elaine straight away.

They walked into the darkened suite and Harumi knocked on her door. After a lot of persistence, Elaine finally allowed her inside.

She’d lost weight, until she was almost gaunt. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair obviously hadn’t been washed in a long time.

At Harumi’s request, Hadith left them alone.

His heart was breaking for the human. For the pain she’d suffered. For the horrors that Devori bastard had forced on her.

Dahnus often said he wished he’d been the one to kill him. Hadith often thought the same thing. That task should never have fallen on Elaine’s shoulders.

The Adosians had failed her, utterly.

Oddly, something seemed to be happening there.

Kemar Etarin, a member of the pack who’d claimed Elaine’s friend Pyri as their mate, contacted Dahnus to ask the truth about the explosion at the IGC. Dahnus patched Thanesh in on the call and, along with the human Sophia Abara, they’d discussed everything. Kemar had gone from one of the loudest supporters of the invasion of Earth, to one of its biggest opponents.

There was a shift in the mood of the IGC.

Adosian allies were suddenly more open to the idea of a conspiracy. Almost like they’d been too afraid to stand up to the leading council when so many of them supported action against the humans.

Since then, the Adosians had begun sharing more information about the experiments the Devori had been conducting and the financial investments he’d been receiving, which seemed to be from an Adosian. Considering the changes made to Pyri, which made her go into an Adosian heat, Hadith wasn’t surprised. Hadith contemplated these matters as he made his way back to his office, all the while a part of his mind was on that small human, and the therapist that would, hopefully, help her heal.

‘Hadith.’

Hadith turned to see Adiyan Sinarti running to catch up with him. Followed by a secretary and two guards.

‘Adiyan. What are you doing here?’

‘Meeting with the Ilan. We just finished. I’d like to speak with you, if you’d allow it,’ he said, nodding at the guards who, no doubt, had been instructed to see him out of the family area.

‘I will give you until we reach my office,’ Hadith said, continuing his way.

Adiyan rushed to catch up.

‘I cannot understand why he is offering sanctuary to this human.’

‘Can you not? Then I am disappointed in you, Adiyan,’ Hadith replied.

‘We should be reaffirming our relationship with the IGC. Not making them our enemies.’ Adiyan’s voice was rising.

‘I believe in our relationship with the IGC. However, I do not believe that just because we’re allies, we must allow them to dictate who we offer protection to. Or allow them to abuse the law out of anger.’

‘This isn’t our fight, Hadith. We have no place in helping this female. For what we once were to one another, Hadith, think about it. Talk to the Ilan about it.’

Hadith stopped and faced Adiyan, who stopped beside him.

‘For what we once were? You mean the brief relationship we had many years ago, until you introduced me to your father who told you, in front of me, that I wasn’t good enough for you. So you cast me away, like flicking an insect off your shoe? That “what we once were”?’

Adiyan looked ashamed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Hadith cut him off.

‘Let me make this clear to you, Adiyan. I support the Ilan, in his plans, in his life, in his protection of this human. More relevantly to this discussion, however, and let me say this slowly so as to impress upon you how deeply I mean it. I. Am. On. Her. Side.’

Adiyan’s face fell, and he took a step back.

‘The abuse she has suffered is horrific. I read the report and it give me nightmares. If I had my way, I would ensure that she was permanently safe on our world. I would ensure she never had to experience anything close to that ever again. Your concerns are noted, and like everything that comes from you, short-sighted, dismissive, and self-serving.’

Hadith took a deep breath and stood a little taller.

‘This is my office. We are done. Please escort the minister’s aide from the palace,’ Hadith said to the guards.

They nodded and stepped forward.

Ignoring the look of anger descending on Adiyan’s face, he walked over to his office and shut him out.

*****

Cycles passed.

In that time, Hadith learned that cycles were known as months on Earth. [LP1] He had become fascinated with the world in the wake of Elaine's arrival.

It was the hot season when Elaine arrived, the grass blazed in pale green and yellows, the sun burned and the mountains grew warmer under the strong light. Dahnus made love to Hadith more often, something inside them burning with a need they seemed unable to satisfy.

Things changed.

The Adosians had a civil war which ended with Pyri and her pack victorious. They revealed their world’s history had been revised to place females below males. The Adosian tradition of placing females in Atchuries, put in place to keep them safe, became about ownership and domination. The Adosian leader, Talis, and his Varaar council declared them illegal, and the practice was ended. Adosia began the path that most societies had to take sooner or later, of allowing a repressed sex their freedom.

The pack that had taken Pyri by force, were now hers by choice. She was their equal, re-establishing a lost council of female leaders that worked on bringing the Adosian world back as it once was, with females honoured. Dahnus and Hadith were fascinated by how this female had wrought such change.

They shared more information with Dahnus, about where the funding for the experiments on Pyri came from. Some were from Amaran accounts. Dahnus was enraged.

The sun lowered in the sky, the evenings grew darker as their world tilted on its axis. Fires, which were a common thing in the palace at all times of the year, grew more numerous, with different fuels to coax them to burn longer, brighter, stronger.

The Devori put through an extradition request for Elaine, which was rejected by the courts even without Dahnus having to file against it.

A group of IGC representatives started an unofficial harassment campaign against the Amaran representative. Dahnus filed a complaint but expected nothing would be done to stop it.

The humans in the IGC went missing. The IGC were furious and started an immediate investigation into what they called a “terrorist plot and travesty of justice”. Meanwhile the population of Tessa grew by a few more people who looked similar to the crew, but had different names and histories. Dahnus, very much relieved, slept deeper in Hadith’s arms.

After a few months of Harumi visiting Elaine’s room every day, she convinced Elaine to start doing their sessions in Harumi's suite, which was now outfitted to her specifications, including her office, which she'd redecorated to make it as soothing and appealing to Elaine as possible.

During this time, Hadith and Harumi became friends. Harumi kept him updated, without infringing on her doctor/patient confidentiality. She said Elaine leaving the room was a good first step. It changed her environment, which helped to change her mental state.

A few weeks later, as the sun began its daily climb and Hadith could see the natural light as he dressed, Harumi was finally able to convince Elaine to start taking walks in the gardens.

Elaine moved around the palace like a ghost. Fragile, beautiful, silent, almost intangible. She carried her pain in the slump of her shoulders, her downcast eyes, in the downturn of her lips, in the slow gait of her step.

She broke Hadith's heart every time he spied her.

Elaine explored the palace with the other human by her side. They talked in hushed voices, in private rooms, in the gardens hidden throughout the palace complex. Once, when Hadith was taking a walk, hoping to see her, he found them sitting on a bench, Elaine's face red, tears spilling from her eyes as Harumi held her. They didn’t spy him, he was hidden behind plants and quickly retreated.

Later, when they talked, Harumi smiled and told him Elaine had achieved a breakthrough. Now her healing could begin, though it would take more time.

The sight of her tears almost broke him.

The next time Hadith saw Elaine, she was wearing a dress of Amaran silk in the Amaran style. She was gaining weight, and her hair was like a curtain of fine Qureshi satin, reflecting golden in the light of the palace. The light blue dress brought out the blue of her eyes. It fell soft and loose down the contours of her body, bringing a grace to her form and movement that took his breath away, hinting at the body beneath, without revealing anything.

Hadith arranged for an array of dresses to be delivered to her in all the colours and styles that he knew would suit her. Yellow to bring out the yellow in her golden blonde hair and the golden tone of her skin which grew richer and darker the more time she spent outside in the quickly heating late spring. Reds, and purples, strong colours and soft. He wanted to see her in every dress he saw.

Elaine never knew it was him, but every day, she wore a new dress and everyday Hadith’s tender feelings grew a little more.

Buds began to appear on the winter stripped trees when Harumi left to visit her sister for a few days when Sakura was due to give birth, then returned with still images and videos of the two half Hieladan female girls her sister had borne before even several days had passed. Sakura’s husband, the leader of the powerful criminal organisation The Calidon Crime Syndicate, stood grinning from ear to ear in one, balanced on his great tail, holding his two girls, their own tails wrapped around each other as they had been in the womb. They shared the blue colouring of their father’s clan, though their blue hair was much darker than their fathers, and they shared the beautiful eyes of their human mother, Sakura, and Harumi who were also twins.

Now back, Harumi got back to work.

Elaine looked healthier every time Hadith saw her. Now her eyes met his when they saw one another. Faltering smiles grew and fixed in place. She nodded in acknowledgement and even that small gesture sped his heart.

The mornings grew brighter, the air warmer. Several months had passed since she arrived at the palace and Hadith ached to spend time with her, talk to her, hear her speak and if the gods were willing, laugh.

One day, Elaine appeared with her hair in an elaborate style that accentuated her bone structure, adding height to her making her look regal, perfect.

Finally, Hadith had to admit, his feelings for Elaine were more than tender. More than protective. He refused to acknowledge them more than that.

A few days later, Harumi appeared at Hadith's office. Her hair was styled, coiffed and tied up in three braids, all three from the front of her hairline, in two sizes, the largest was the centre one, which was plaited loosely, with two slimmer braids flanking it. The back of her hair was gathered in a series of complicated knots with pale pink flowers tucked into the gaps between them. A few strands fell over her neck.

'Your hair is spectacular,' Hadith said as Harumi showed it off.

'It was Elaine,' Harumi smiled. 'This is the clearest indication she is on the road to recovery. Pyri told me Elaine has always loved styling her hair, that she now takes care of her appearance is a sign she is beginning to care about herself again. But to do mine, means she is taking pleasure from things that used to bring her joy.'

'Are you done here, doctor?' Hadith asked.

'Not done,' Harumi said. 'But I believe we are far enough along that I can visit my sister. I didn’t get to spend much time with my nieces when they were born, I would like to go back and see how they all are.'

Hadith smiled, though it was tinged with sadness. Sadness for Elaine, that she would be without Harumi for a while. Sadness for him and Dahnus, that they hadn't yet found their Ilia. He wanted children with a need that staggered him. He wanted to see their Ilia round with a child.

Hadith was eager for the day they would conceive Dahnus's heir.

'Does Elaine know?' He forced himself back to the here and now.

Harumi nodded. 'She is most eager that I should go and be with my family. I have told her I will be available anytime, day or night, should she need me.'

'Then you must go,' Hadith agreed. 'I will arrange for the Tessans to bring you back to Adalth and Sakura.'

Harumi bowed, a sign of respect in her culture that Hadith was quite taken with.

After, he sat and thought about all that had transpired, about the leaps Elaine had taken. Taking out a pen, he wrote out a quick note and had a palace guard deliver it. A reply arrived a short time later.

Elaine would meet him at the sunset balcony for supper.

Hadith ignored the way his heart started to beat.

Whatever his feelings for Elaine, she would be the one to dictate the bounds of their friendship. He would simply enjoy her company and let her know Dahnus and Hadith would never abandon her.

 [LP1]Get rid of most human words before this. Let this book be the transition.