“I am the Ancient One,” the old male said, stopping a few meters from them. He looked H’raken, Brav thought, only his head was much smaller than those of the people in the village.
“What are you doing here?” Danielle echoed Brav’s question.
“I live here—in the computer room.” The old male pointed to the mysterious door they had noticed during their first trip inside the metal pyramid which housed the Mother Stone. “Or at least, a simulation of my personality does,” he added.
“You are the ancestor of the H’rakens who now live in the village?” Brav asked, frowning.
“Exactly.” The old male nodded. “I am also the one who decided to send a messenger ship to you, asking for an alliance with the Kindred. But I see now it cannot be—the Mother Stone affects you too adversely.”
“What do you mean?” Danielle demanded. “The Mother Stone heals us and draws us to our loved ones.”
“No, my dear—the Mother Stone may help you to heal in some ways, but it has created a false relationship between you and your coworker, there,” the Ancient One said gently. “I have heard him say that the two of you have known each other only two weeks and yet you feel that you would rather die than be without him.”
“How did you hear all that?” Brav demanded. “How long have you been spying on us, you old bastard?”
“I have been observing you since you first came to our planet,” the Ancient One said with dignity. “And I apologize for interrupting your, er, coitus, but it seemed that it was going to be a lengthy operation and the fact is, being so close to the Mother Stone has become dangerous for the two of you.”
“Dangerous how?” Danielle demanded.
“My dear, the two of you grow younger every day!” the Ancient One said. “Can you not see it yourselves? When you came, the both of you seemed to be in the middle of your life-spans—in your forties or fifties if I am correct about how your two species age. Now you are in your early twenties or late teens and every moment you spend so close to the Mother Stone, you de-age even more. If I had allowed you to continue with your ‘bonding’ as I heard you calling it, without interrupting, you might have de-aged away to nothing by the time you finished. In fact, I must beg you to stop touching the Mother Stone right now.”
Brav looked at Danielle and realized the old male was right. Though his memories of the Before Times—as he thought of the time before their first visit to the Mother Stone—had grown dim, he could still remember that she had once been a mature Elite. Now, she appeared to be a female of eighteen or nineteen years old.
But hadn’t she looked older than that, just this morning? He distinctly remembered thinking as they started the harvesting that she looked like a female in her late twenties. Had she really lost ten years off her age since the two of them had started bonding?
Danielle seemed to be thinking the same thing because she put a hand to her mouth as she studied his face.
“He’s right, Bravik,” she whispered. “I was thinking this morning that you looked about thirty or maybe just a little younger but now you can’t be more than nineteen or twenty!”
“Maybe we should move away from the Mother Stone,” Brav growled. He was acutely aware of the warmth of it against his back and the pulsing hum of its power flowing through him.
He was no longer hard—being interrupted by an ancient hologram observing their love-making had definitely put a damper on his erection—so he was able to decouple from Danielle and slide out of her easily, though she blushed and kept trying to cover herself while he did.
The Ancient One, for his part, turned his back considerately so that the two of them could get untangled in semi-privacy.
But as they finally got to their feet, Danielle’s face broke into a broad smile.
“Oh look, Bravik—you’re healed! The Goddess was right—our bonding diluted the poison and healed you!” she exclaimed.
Looking down at his side, Brav saw that she was right. The black lines that had been creeping under his skin were gone and even the bite in his side was healed completely.
“Thank the Goddess,” he muttered, though he still feared that Danielle would feel she had paid too high a price to save his life once she found herself bonded to a male she’d only known two weeks. He had a feeling things were going to be different once they left Soluu Four, though he wasn’t exactly sure how.
“You may well thank your Goddess,” the Ancient One said, turning his head. “For it is certain that it wasn’t the Mother Stone that healed your Riiver bite, Kindred.”