FIFTY-EIGHT: If this one makes it to you…

Saying goodbye to Kibby sucked.

Alden asked himself what he would want for the two of them in an absolutely perfect universe, and the answer was that he’d like for them to live together in a peaceful chaos-free cottage on Earth, with a kidnapped Instructor Gwen-lor on the premises to teach them magic every day and nothing but endless amounts of free time.

He told Kibby this while they took a long walk together across the bare, chaos-free soil of Moon Thegund, leaving the dome far behind. It was almost completely private. He could still feel Alis-art’h. But she must not have been able to hear his words or his thoughts, or she’d have had a much better understanding of him than she actually did.

“We would have to be excellent students if we kidnapped her, Alden,” Kibby said. “It would add a lot of pressure.”

“We can handle pressure.”

“Yes,” Kibby agreed. “Will you send me a message as soon as you get back to Earth?”

Alden’s large breakfast was heavy in his stomach.

“It might take me a while to settle in and get used to home and the Contract again,” he said finally. “Give me a few human weeks, and then I’ll send you messages through Knight Alis-art’h and pester you every day.”

If she wasn’t expecting him to reach out for a while, she could relax into life here before she realized something bad had happened. She could be a child; she could grow close to Rrorro and the wizards. She could have some cushion against the news.

“You have to hide the auriad under your flower shirt before we get back,” Kibby reminded him.

Alden realized he’d been rubbing it again and tucked it away. His wardrobe had been reduced to a cleaned but abused-looking Hawaiian shirt and some loaned wizard pants so short they landed just below his knees. He didn’t even have a pair of shoes. He’d been going barefoot everywhere.

He buttoned the top button on the shirt. “Hidden?” he asked.

She nodded. “I don’t think Knight Alis-art’h would care that it’s yours.”

“Do you want to tell her? I don’t mind.”

“You said maybe it would be dangerous once.”

“I don’t know that people will be upset. I’m just not sure.”

“Then we shouldn’t say anything,” Kibby said. “I like keeping secrets with you anyway.”

Alden smiled. “I like it, too. You know what I don’t like?”

“What?”

“The fact that you’re going to get so far ahead of me now that you’re learning magic from wizards who were chosen to be companions for a knight!”

“It’s true,” Kibby said, grinning up at him. “I will exceed you in every way.”

“Even if I’m the best Avowed in the universe?”

“You will be the best Avowed. I will be the next Primary.”

“Wow. You’re killing your hero just like that? So much ambition.”

“He doesn’t have to die. He just has to become Secondary instead.”

“I’m excited.” Alden reached for her hand as they turned back to the dome. “I’m going to have matching face tattoos with the Primary one day.”

******************

Alden got to ride in a spaceship. To a bigger spaceship.

It was something so far outside his imagination that it had never even made it onto his bucket list.

The small egg-shaped transport vessel that ferried them from the ground to the ship in orbit had giant windows. Alis-art’h was the only other passenger, and she quickly realized that Alden wasn’t paying attention to her at all as they rose swiftly but gently through thick yellow-gray clouds and he finally saw what had been beyond them all this time.

Below him, there was the curve of the moon’s atmosphere as it fell away. And there was Kimnor—an aqua and green gas giant with striations like Jupiter’s—set against a field of black.

“God,” he said in English. “It’s beautiful.”

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He pressed a hand to the window.

He felt very small.

There was a lot of time to stare, but it still wasn’t enough. When they docked with the larger ship, he tried not to be disappointed that their trip through the narrow white corridors did not take them past any viewing areas.

There were a lot of wizards on board. Most of them stood out of the way and made respectful gestures to the knight as she passed. Someone ran up with a tablet to ask a question about a technical matter and got a look that made even Alden, in the strange mood he was in, feel vicarious mortification.

That guy is probably going to go back to his cabin and cry, he thought, as he watched the wizard jog down the corridor.

They arrived at the teleportation chamber quickly.