What Happens in Orbit Pt. 21

Tara got up again, moving to sit by Cora this time. "I want to warn you," she whispered.

"Hm? Warn me about what?"

The others were pretending not to listen, with varying levels of believability.

"The que- sorry, the princess is going to ask you something. She doesn't want you to feel coerced but doesn't want to hear no for an answer."

Cora narrowly stopped herself from rolling her eyes. "I'm not really a no kind of person, usually. What's she wanting?" I bet I can guess.

"She wants you to give her an heir."

I guessed very wrong. "Ah. I thought so," Cora lied.

Mar was staring at the ceiling, while Tai studied his food as if it had started speaking to him. Della had laced each set of fingers together, taking on an expression of forced nonchalance.

"That's wonderful, I'm glad you're so calm about it!" Tara beamed.

"Yeah," Cora laughed weakly. "It'll be fine."

"Someone should probably ask Tor first," muttered Mar in a singsong voice.

"Hm?" said Tara.

"Hm?" echoed Mar, as if he'd just entered the conversation.

Tara shook her head. "Oh! There's your food."

Cora looked up just as the man from before set her bowl down. It was beautiful, stir-fried meat and vegetables, all very familiar. She turned to Tai. "Can you tell him I said thank you?"

The bowl steamed, some of the contents still sizzling. I need to let it cool. "Hey Tara, I'll be right back. I have to let this cool."

She got up and darted out of the room.

Della was right. Tor sat in a huddle with Leo and Erie, back in their room. They snapped up as she walked in, suddenly silent.

"...What? Did I interrupt something?"

Tor nodded. "Yes, but it's fine. What's wrong?"

Cora shut the door behind her. "Uh... Y'know. The queen, sorry, future queen is going to ask me to do something that you may not like very much."

Shaking his head, Tor waved a hand at her. "You usually don't ask before you fuck someone. Why start now?" Cora was surprised to hear a lack of bitterness in his voice. Well, not for long. "No. I mean, well, maybe, but it's worse than that. She hasn't asked yet, but according to one of her servants, I- she wants me to- how do I put this?" She didn't know the word for heir in Roshak. Some words she only had slang terms for. "She wants to... knock me up?"

Erie flew backwards, twisting in midair to dive for his bed. He shook, poorly hiding laughter as he pretended to look for something. Tor stared blankly at her, still processing what she'd said.

"Why would she want to do that?" cut in a confused Leo.

Cora shrugged. "No clue. Maybe she doesn't want to waste all the laws her mom broke to get me to where I am?"

Tor tilted his head. "That... Doesn't make a lot of sense. You weren't compatible with them last time, what makes this time different?"

"Well, when they looked at my blood before the meeting, it had a lot more of a certain Sheevae thing in it than they expected. They'll probably do more testing."

He sighed. "Do you have to?"

"I mean... I killed her mother, Tor. I know it's weird of her to ask this, but I feel equally weird trying to tell her no. Well, not weird. Look, do you see how she's built? I'd have better luck persuading a Meer to become vegetarian."

He nodded. Why is he being so calm about this?

"It's your choice, Cora."

Cora narrowed her eyes. "Why do I feel like you've already decided for me?"

Erie shot up from his bags. "It buys us time to get our shit together!"

"I wouldn't have put it like that," Tor mumbled, looking away.

"Ugh." Cora crossed her arms. "Then just tell me. Don't make things weirder by dancing around the truth. Why do we need to buy time?"

Leo piped up before Tor could get his words together. "We've got no ship, no money, and no clue where to go. The matriarch knows the kids are on the planet now and is gonna be looking for them. We need a plan, and fast. And one that doesn't involve another Noxis scavenger, please!" At this, he shot a glare at Tor.

"So, in theory, if I accept her offer, whatever it means, there's a possibility she lets us stay here until we find some kind of work?"

Leo shrugged. "That's the idea. Sheevae, they're kind of like humans, right?" He looked at Erie, thinking. "They don't lay eggs."

Erie shook his head. "Nope! You are the egg."

"That- God, you made that sound even worse." Cora had grown accustomed to eggs. The idea of anything else made her shudder. "You know, Tor, if I were anyone else, I'd be really offended about this entire conversation."

He didn't look up. "You're not."

Cora tried to take offense, just to prove him wrong. No, I guess he's right.

Erie was quickly becoming frustrated at this exchange. "Don't act above it all now, the only reason you're so calm about the idea is because Koramin already asked you about this, like, two rotations ago."

Slowly, Tor turned, fixing him with a glare. "I wasn't going to mention that, Erie."

"Wait, why not?" Cora chewed at her lower lip, imagining how that conversation would have gone. "And what did you tell her?"

Leo clamped a hand over Erie's mouth. "You're not pissing him off any more today," he hissed.

"I, I said she'd have to ask you," Tor said after a pause. "That none of us would have a problem with it unless you said no, and she tried it anyway."

How reasonable of him. Cora wasn't surprised. Tor was no idiot. None of them were stupid enough to anger the former queen.

"I'll probably tell her yes," she spoke confidently. She didn't have Tor's capricious jealousy to worry about anymore. "I just hope it doesn't end up being a situation."