The Best Next Thing ((Un)Professionally Yours 1)
Dendroignis the Abhorrent, violator of maidens, demolisher of kingdoms, pillager of riches, scourge of the four sovereignties of Terra Arbor, will lay waste to our dwellings if apposite safeguards are not—
“Shit!” He fumbled for the dial and muted the bombastic speech. “Sorry.”
“What was that?” Charity asked as he navigated the vehicle out of the garage.
He focused on clearing the structure before answering her question. “An audiobook.”
“I gathered that much. It was very…descriptive.”
“The author does bang on but—” He shrugged offering her a small smile and appreciating how she had turned in her seat to give him her full focus. “I like it.”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s a space opera.”
“Like Star Wars?”
“A bit darker. Very medieval and graphic.”
“Medieval? In space?”
“Well, their world, Terra Arbor, is primitive. They’re fighting over land and resources, using swords, burning pitch, and trebuchets in battle. That kind of thing.”
“So…no spaceships?”
“Of course they have spaceships, but…”
“How can they have spaceships but still not have evolved beyond sword fights and medieval battle tactics? What about medicine? How do they treat the gaping sword wounds?”
“Their ship, the Arbor, was part of a larger colonial fleet—humans fleeing a dying earth in the year 2250—and it crash-landed on a massive, habitable planet—”
“Of all the planets, in all the solar systems, amidst billions of galaxies, in an infinite universe, they crash-landed on a habitable one? Fortuitous…” she inserted dryly, and he shot her an unfathomable look, before continuing.
“The rest of the fleet continued on their journey, because once the ships land, they’re no longer able to take off. They become temporary hubs for the two thousand people who populate them. The ship is meant to house them and protect them, until their new planet is terraformed and suitable for human habitation. The fleet promised to send a rescue mission back for the Arboreans, but that was over five hundred years ago.
“Meanwhile, the colonists on the crashed ship learned to adapt to life on Terra Arbor. But resources are scarce, and tech has degraded badly. They inevitably broke off into clans, and formed kingdoms to keep the gene pool diverse. They created a primitive free-market and trade-based society. But there were outliers, those who wanted to control resources and amass power. Dendroignis the Abhorrent is the descendant of one of those outliers.”
His voice trailed off in embarrassment as he recognized that he was being overzealous in his eagerness to share his favorite author with her. He sneaked a glance at her—she was watching him with an enigmatic smile on her full lips.
“Is it a series?”
“Uh, yes. This is the fifth book in the saga. It started with Alpha Gen, the original stranded colonials.”
“So you don’t have one hero to root for?”
“The first book was mostly world building. A prologue of sorts, it gave us an insight into the struggles the original generation faced. The next book skipped two hundred and fifty years ahead and showed us how everything pretty much went to hell. Books three to five focus on the current generation. The series follows one particular clan, the Cedarians—all the clans are named after trees—which is why the outlying tribe named itself Dendroignis, which literally translates into ‘tree fire’.”
Charity couldn’t stop staring at him. He reminded her of an excited little boy telling her about his favorite toy. The story sounded frankly ridiculous, but the delight he took in it was charming to witness. She let him continue on about these fictitious clans, their spirit trees, and their mortal enemies the tree burners or whatever. And she couldn’t prevent a silly smile from creeping onto her lips.
Miles Hollingsworth was kind of adorable when he was geeking out, and she kept him talking with the occasional leading question.
She was happy she had summoned up the guts to join him and Stormy that morning. It felt good to be out of the house again. She hadn’t left the premises aside from that one shopping trip to Riversend on the day after his arrival nearly two weeks ago. He had gone into town to get Stormy checked out after the power outage but, with the exception of his daily walks, he had also been pretty much housebound.
Something he said drew her back to the conversation.
“Wait, so there’s magic?”
“No, just powerful elemental forces at play.”