“Alright,” she says when everybody is assembled in the throne room. A small seam of space remains wounded, through which the old king can intermittently be heard screaming. It’s a very satisfying little addition. “You’re all good to go. One of you can decide to be king, and I’ll go off with Blackmane.”
The faye seem surprised and somewhat excited, but mostly surprised. I am also surprised, but in a different way.
“You won’t be staying?” Marvork asks the question.
“There’s no way I’m sticking around this world. I want to sail the universe. I want to take things from people who don’t want me to take them. I want to plunder. I want to…”
“Astaria.” I say her name gently, knowing she does not want to hear what I’m going to say next.
“Yes?”
“They’re going to need you. Here. With them.”
She jerks her head back, shocked. “No, they’re not!”
“Yes. They are. You’ve saved the faye, but they're not out of the woods yet. There are still several million humans who will do their best to kill them. We need to stay and protect them until we can be certain that they’ll be safe. Otherwise, this has been what they call a huge waste of time. I can tell you now there is no chance this will be a peaceful transition.”
“Look!”
We turn to see that Redpelt has a human female by the hair. Her hair matches his in hue almost exactly. This seems to excite him greatly. He bends himself down to press his head next to hers.
“Look at this one! She looks like me!”
“Put me down!” The female gasps, thoroughly panicked.
“That’s my cousin, Angelica. Hi, Angelica,” Astaria says. “Nice to see you.”
“Astaria,” Angelica says. “Can you get this alien to let me go, please.”
“I want to keep this one,” Redpelt says. “I like her coloring.”
“You can’t pick people on their appearance,” Astaria says.
Redpelt seems confused. “How do human males pick their mates?”
“Mostly on appearance, but sometimes on political linkages. So…”
“Uh huh.”
“I’d really rather he let me go,” Angelica says as Redpelt picks her up by the waist and snugs her under his arm.
“You get used to the carrying about,” Astaria offers.
“Yes, but…” Angelica tries to complain.
“I like this one!” Redpelt has made his decision, and he is also heading off in the direction of somewhere or something.
“I think I’m going to need to go save her,” Astaria says. “I really don’t want any women ravaged. By anybody. And I mean it. I will cut the cock off any male who puts it in a female who doesn’t want it, and I will hurl it into my father’s prison realm.
“REDPELT! UNHAND THE WOMAN!” I boom the order.
He does so, reluctantly.
“You have to get to know her,” Astaria instructs. “One step at a time. Romantically. Bring her some flowers. Or something. Don’t throw her out an airlock.”
Angelica looks terribly confused, as well she might. This is not going to be an easy transition. Xenovorks, humans, and faye all trying to exist on this one world. Confusion will be rife. Violence too, no doubt. But we will overcome all odds. With Astaria as queen and me by her side we can hardly fail — especially given there are no real failure conditions in life. Even if it all goes terribly wrong, at least we tried.
This is what humans would call a happily ever after.
(And if it’s not, they should.)