Naralia and the Quin

"But," she added, with a faint smile, "I have come to know the joy of broadening my definition of beauty that my husband always told me of, and now regard your planet and people, complete with all their mysteries and wonders and puzzles, as being extremely beautiful."

Altar suddenly felt faint in his head, and reaching for the flat top of a resting asteroid fragment, which had long ago fallen upon the cliff, he sat down.

Naralia sat down beside him. Tucking her legs up and wrapping her arms around them, she rested her head on Altars shoulder affectionately, oblivious to his discomfort.

"Forgive me for not hearing you correctly, lovely Naralia, but did I hear you mention a husband? And why have you never told me of this attachment?"

Naralia jerked her head up, suddenly realizing that she had revealed something she had thus far seen fit not to reveal to her friend and his people. Seeing that concealment was futile now, Naralia looked down at her knees and said softly to the waiting Altar, "Yes, I do have a husband." Looking up at Altar, whose green eyes seemed to pierce through her delicate being, Naralia continued, "It is a long story, for though I have a husband, I have never seen him."

Altar raised his brow in surprise. There was not much hidden for the Quin people, save the magical springs which they sought beneath the ground, so this concept of being so attached to one Naralia had never even seen was completely foreign to Altar. He perched an elbow on one knee and leaned a hand on his head, and said, "I am ready to hear the tale, however long it might be."

And so Naralia told him, as best she could, the mysterious tale of her childhood and her adolescence. Altar did not relate to age in the same way as Naralia, for it seemed she had gained the knowledge of a hundred years in only a handful of years that to the Quin represented no more than childhood. Nevertheless he tried his best to have an open mind, and to grasp the affection and adoration Naralia displayed when she spoke of a husband so dear that she would do whatever he asked of her.

"Is that why you came to Quin? Only because your husband asked you to?" Altar asked, realizing now that he had been foolish in fancying that her study of his planet and peoples was a result of simple desires springing from her own heart, or that the apparent affection she held for him was the result of her own will.

His eyes narrowed as he stared into the deepening shadows of the canyon. It seemed more and more likely that all of his sister’s pessimistic whisperings to him were true, and that Naralia must have some secret, selfish agenda. She must be intent on using them all. Altar felt anger filling his heart as he realized the shame he would bring on his own house for having accepted her into his life so unquestioningly.

Naralia was struggling with the words to say, and how she could possibly explain her presence in terms that Altar would understand, when he abruptly rose and walked away, not looking back at her. She burst into tears, which poured down the smooth, waxy surface of the fallen asteroid in a delicate stream, forming a small pool on the ground.

***

In the deep of the night, the people of Quin took advantage of the darkness and subsequent coolness to enter the deep caverns beneath the surface of Quin. These caverns were too hot during the day due to the combination of harsh atmospheric light as well as gases in the center, which responded to this light by rising in temperature.