Page 89 of I Married A Syllen

“Naxia weeds cannot be used to accidentally or intentionally destroy an entire city or world,” he countered forcefully. “I understand your arguments, but these are not comparable deterrents. The weeds target the trespasser. The nectar will indiscriminately kill the culprits, the innocents, and the land targeted.”

“All valid counterarguments,” Tedrik said diplomatically. “Either way, none of this will be resolved now. We don’t even know for certain that this is what they were after. For the moment, the priority is to arrest all of these people. I have a team ready to raid—”

“You will do no such thing,” Taelen snapped. “This will be handled by the Syllens.”

“It’s possible that not everyone at Procrea is in on what was happening,” Tedrik cautioned.

“That will be for us to judge,” Taelen replied sternly. “Do not interfere.”

“I would like to go inside the building and access their computers. Their data might contain incriminating evidence,” Maeve said.

“I don’t care what you do with their computers,” Taelen retorted disdainfully. “So far, your gathered data has been useless.”

Even though the snarky comment hadn’t been aimed at me, I flinched on Maeve’s behalf. I didn’t doubt that she had bent over backwards trying to get some kind of evidence that would allow her to identify a suspect. That she had come up empty-handed only meant they’d done a great job of covering their trail.

“They haven’t led us to anything incriminating enough to get an indictment,” Maeve conceded in a soft voice. “We haven’t found any products that use melia stones or sap. We were certain that Pirenei was somehow involved, but they were clean, aside from their failure to properly enforce the surveillance against trespassers. But now, we may finally have the link we needed.”

“How so?” Taelen challenged.

“You got witnesses that directly incriminated them. Procrea actively works with the flora of Mazeria for some of their products. And as a sister company of Pirenei, they have greater authorizations with access to restricted areas.”

“By the Goddess! Why didn’t you investigate them sooner?” Taelen snarled, echoing my sentiment.

“We did but could only go so far without probable cause,” Maeve said apologetically. “We checked every product thinking melia was the key, not the Crimson Datura.”

“Do what you will with the data you manage to retrieve. For now, we’re arriving. We’ll speak to you later,” Taelen said.

“What are you going to do?” Tedrik asked, his voice tense.

“Get answers,” Taelen said before glancing to the horizon. “Goodbye.”

The sky was spotted with a shocking number of Syllens flying towards us. Despite knowing more and more of them had been awakened over the past few days, I hadn’t realized there were so many. Some were coming from the Galnir Tribe. As Ungaro was farther away, I didn’t know if they were also making the journey. My stomach dropped upon realizing that even more of them were riding Elijinns.

This was an army on the path of war…

Distraught, I mumbled some barely intelligible goodbye to Tedrik and Maeve before ending the communication. My mind raced as I tried to come to terms with the shitshow that awaited us ahead. We were still a good fifteen to twenty minutes away from our destination. So why had he terminated the conversation so early? Was it because he deemed the topic settled?

No. He wants to settle things between us…

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I realized that Taelen had slowed down our mount to allow the others to catch up. His arm also tightened around my waist, prompting me to look at him over my shoulder. My stomach knotted at the way he intensely stared at me. Despite the neutral expression he’d plastered on his face, I could almost see his wheels spinning. Tension literally oozed out of him, matching the one liquifying my insides.

This shit was happening too early in our relationship. We never even got a chance to get to know each other and build a solid foundation of trust before having to deal with this type of major crisis.

“If you wish, I can drop you off at a safe place nearby so that you do not have to partake in what’s going to happen,” he said in a calm, almost conversational tone.

I recoiled, feeling both hurt and rejected.

“You don’t want me by your side to face this?” I asked, the hurt I felt audible in my voice.

“I don’t want you to be forced to make a choice you may not be ready for,” he replied in the same controlled voice. “You are my soulmate, but we are not the same species. As your people attacked mine, I have a duty to fight back. I cannot pretend to know how you feel or—”

“Stop it!” I said sternly. “While I appreciate that you want to protect me, you have this all wrong. My people did not attack yours. A group of criminals attacked the Syllens and Mazeria. Those criminals simply happen to be humans… or so we assume. Humanity did not attack you. Therefore, there is no choice for me to make. I want the culprits caught and punished in an exemplary enough fashion that no one else will dare mess with Mazeria.”

His stunned expression at my impassioned response made me realize he hadn’t thought of it from that perspective.

“I understand that your previous experience with off-worlders was with the Settlers. They were one group, sharing the same vile mentality, and pursuing the same goal,” I continued. “We are not the Settlers. We don’t share their views or values. It will take time for you to fully see and accept that. After all, you’d just finished chasing them away before entering the Long Sleep. As a whole, off-worlders and humans are not evil. Those who attacked you are.”

“I apologize,” he said, looking somewhat mortified as he continued to weigh my words. “You’re right. I have a hard time separating off-worlders from the Settlers. It is difficult for me not to see this as simply foreigners against Syllens.”