Jīvitaya wakes to sunlight shining in her eyes and jerks away from it with a hiss, holding back a shriek of pain at the movement. She waits for it to ebb away before sliding out of the bed and onto the levik, the healing stone clasped tightly between her fingers. She emerges from the room to the kitchen, where Kysanden and Rebexi wait, sitting on the couch. Kysanden looks at her and bursts into laughter.

She practically growls at him. "What is it?!"

He barely gets a word in between his chuckles. "I'm sorry, but your hair is a mess!"

She grumbles. "Shut up."

He raises his hands placatingly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Rebexi holds out a plate to Jīvitaya. "Do you want some biscuits?"

Jīvitaya takes the plate gratefully. "Thank you."

The biscuits are a soft blue, and Jīvitaya bites into one gingerly. Instead of tasting like berries, which she expected, she is pleasantly surprised by a warm cheddar flavor.

"These are wonderful, Rebexi!"

"Thank you."

Kysanden stands up, and when Jīvitaya looks at him, he speaks, "I'm going to get the boat all ready to go."

Jīvitaya nods and turns back to her biscuits. She finishes them quickly before polishing off the plate, not even leaving a crumb. Rebexi looks at the plate and chuckles.

"You really did like those biscuits!"

"Yes, and I would love to have that recipe, if it's at all possible."

"Of course. I'll give you the recipe for the chiantori too."

Jīvitaya beams. "Thank you!"

Kysanden hits a button, and the boat shudders to life, heading back to shore at a sedate pace. Jīvitaya moves the levik out of the way and pulls out her tablet, opening up a window with one of her books, grateful that she had transferred her favorites before leaving her house. She sits there, engrossed in the unfolding story while the boat tugs along towards the shore at a steady pace. Kysanden pulls himself away from the wheel for a moment to peer over Jīvitaya's shoulder.

"What are you reading?"

"It's an old story, about an assassin who takes up the mantle of her past and becomes Queen, going on to defeat a demon King and Queen."

"It sounds interesting. Have you read it before?"

She smiles. "Many times, it's one of my favorites."

He grins at her. "Have fun."

She beams at him just before Kysanden returns to the wheel. The rest of the ride back to shore is comfortably silent, everyone busy doing something of their own. When they arrive, there is a small crowd of people waiting for them.

Jīvitaya is confused. "Rebexi, why are all these people here?"

Rebexi smiles. "I may have told them that our test had good results."

"And?"

"They want you to explain it and how it is good."

Jīvitaya lets out an audible groan. "Yay."

She moves the levik to the stern of the boat and descends the ramp to the shore. The gathered people instantly turn to look at her, their faces expectant. Jīvitaya gulps.

"Um, hi?"

There is a slight shifting from the crowd, and one person in the back waves at her. She takes it as encouragement, and continues on.

"Um, Rebexi told me that she told you all about our testing, and that you want me to explain it, is that right?"

Someone flashes her a thumbs up. Jīvitaya takes a shaky breath.

"We went out to sea, and tested to see if the water could dilute the effects of the Saieat if you weren't actually in the water. We discovered that not only does it dilute the effects, but they also can't even be felt out on the water."

There is a smattering of applause from the crowd.

"What this means is that if you can erect floating villages, you could live out there and be protected from the Saieats. I know you likely don't want to leave your homes, but you can still go back and forth. The program will alert you all to an approaching Saieat, so you would only need to be near enough to the water to retreat there as needed. It's not ideal, but the other solution is to leave Mior altogether, so I hope this solution will be satisfactory."

The people cheer, and soon begin to disperse. A few remain, to ask questions.

"How will we make these floating villages that you are suggesting?"

"You could construct large floating docks, and build homes on top of them. There would probably be one or more pillars that would be used to anchor the docks so that they don't float away."

"Thank you!"

Jīvitaya smiles at them, and answers a few more questions before they finally leave, allowing her to escape to the ship, where Rebexi and Kysanden abandoned her to go to. Kysanden grins at her.

"You did great, Jīa!" Rebexi nods to confirm it.
"That was absolutely horrible! I felt like I was going to die!"

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad."

"Yes it was, have you ever done it?!"

Kysanden just looks at her. "Of course I have, I'm a Prince, it's in the job description."

Jīvitaya's cheeks redden. "Oh."

"You forgot, didn't you?"

She mumbles, "Yes."

"I'm not surprised. I've mentioned it once, when we first met."

Jīvitaya nods and heads into the ship to her lab setup. Once inside, she stops and stares blankly at the screen. She takes a deep breath and opens the tab for the DNA scanner. She starts a comparison between Mioran blood and her own, waiting nervously while it processes. It finally finishes processing with a ding, and a pop up asks her if she wants to view the results. She clicks it, and it moves to a new window. The data on the screen shows her the percentage of differences between the two DNA samples. There is a 5% difference in the samples, far too much to be anywhere near the same species. Jīvitaya lets out a breath and turns the levik out of the room, heading to the kitchen.

Kysanden is sitting at the table, Rebexi cooking once again. Jīvitaya moves to the table, just in time for Rebexi to carry over a couple plates of some kind of bird. Jīvitaya looks closer, and is surprised to see that the meat is a dark gray. She picks at it.

"Rebexi, what is this?"

"It's an avix. They are small, relatively flightless birds. You'll like it if your reaction to the other meals is any indication, I promise."

Jīvitaya picks up a piece and bites into it. She moans as the juices fill her mouth with flavor. She swallows, already missing the flavor.

"Rebexi, why is everything you make so good!"

"It's because your taste buds like Mioran food."

Kysanden speaks up, grinning. "No, it's because you're an amazing cook, Rebexi."

"Thank you."

Jīvitaya thinks for a moment, then gathers up the courage to open her mouth.

"Kys, I processed the DNA in the blood samples."

He turns to her. "What were the results?"

Jīvitaya frowns slightly. "I'm not Mioran, there are too many differences in the DNA sequence."

"It's okay, I know of some other planets that you might be from."

Jīvitaya nods sadly before looking past him to the window, where the sky has begun to darken. "I'm going to go to bed now."

He opens his mouth to say something, but Jīvitaya has already left the room, sending the levik shooting down the hallway to her room. Jīvitaya stations the levik next to the bed and hoists herself off of it and onto the bed. She hisses at the pain and slips her hand into her pocket to touch the healing stone. When the pain is gone, she scoots back to sit against the wall. She cradles her head in her hands and begins to sob softly.

"Jīa, are you alright? Your emotions are coming across in a turmoil."

Kysanden is standing in the doorway, looking concerned. She momentarily curses at whatever it is that lets him feel what she does.

Her voice chokes up. "I just want to know who I am."

Kysanden strides over to the bed and pushed the levik aside to sit next to her. He holds out his arms and she falls into them, sobbing.

"I promise, I will help you find out who you are."

He lifts her chin to look at her in the eyes. "Don't lose hope, it would have been a miracle if you were from the first place we went to."

She nods but continues to cry for a while longer. He strokes her hair the entire time, not stopping or slowing until she falls asleep.

————————————————————————————————
Hey guys! What do you think?
As promised, here is your chapterly picture of Jīvitaya!

Yeah, Jīvitaya isn't a public speaker. But neither am I. What do you think of those biscuits? Who knows what book Jīvitaya was reading? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out