She felt near hopelessness settle in over him. He fought it though, telling himself that he would bide his time and find an opening, then take his revenge. Kes let out a breath. None of this was what she wanted in any way. She wished she could just tell Artem the truth and ask him, plead with him if she needed to, to forgive her son… but she could tell from having been in his mind that it wouldn’t work, that he’d see her asking for something like that as most Kazon males would… as a weakness.

So she held her knife to his throat and asked Tresit to unbind his cousin’s legs. Tresit did so silently. True to his word, he wasn’t speaking or looking at Artem at all. She could since Artem’s small amount of satisfaction at that. Tresit was disgracing himself, she only just now realized… In Artem’s eyes, that’s what he was doing. He was doing it to give his cousin the best chance he had – to give that to all of them, in fact. In that moment, Kes found herself feeling just… very proud of him.

Kes held the knife to Artem’s throat long enough for Tresit to get clear of him, then backed away herself, letting her nephew stand.

From there, Tresit walked ahead, leading the way for them, while Kes stayed behind… a silent threat that Artem couldn’t see. If he couldn’t see her, she knew, it would be more frightening to him than if he could. Besides, she didn’t think she’d be able to keep up her pretense of threat and ’strength’ all the way back home anyway. She felt a headache coming on as it was from what she’d made herself say and do. All the way home, she fought against those feelings, trying to soothe her troubled thoughts and drawing on Anara’s presence in her mind for comfort. It helped, it worked, but only so much.

The march back was a silent thing. Tresit didn’t speak and Artem couldn’t through his gag – thankfully, he wasn’t giving them any trouble either, and Kes felt it wise not to disrupt the grudging silent accord between them and risk changing that.

When they got back to the house, Lanam and Anara came out to greet them, Tresit going to hug his sister hello. Kes sensed Artem’s anger well up inside him so that it was almost hate and Kes, fearing what he might try to do with her family so near, reached her hand forward to clutch his head and put him to sleep again, catching him as he fell and lowering him to the ground. As she looked down at him, unconscious, she couldn’t hold it in any longer, she started to cry and felt like she was helpless to stop. Anara was by her side then and Kes let Artem slide from her lap to the sand as Anara held her and Kes cried on her shoulder and held her in return, just absurdly grateful to be home, to feel Arana’s touch, her scent, and her solid warmth against her.

Their mental bond was an amazing thing, but Kes realized now just how much real physical touch mattered. She’d known it before, but now she felt she knew it in an even deeper way that would always live inside her.

Kes heard Lanam asking her brother what was wrong and sounding like she might start crying too though, so Kes had to force herself towards composure again. She wiped her tears away and got up to sitting in time to give her daughter a long hug as she came over to them and to tell her that everything would be alright.

—————-

to be continued