Chapter Text
So'lek hadn't seen Tamtey in a while.
He was a little worried about her. Maybe more than a little.
She didn't look like someone who needed worrying about — the Sarentu never did. She could be a bit reckless, sure, always charging ahead to meet trouble before it met anyone else, but everyone would tell you she was dependable, trustworthy, a warrior of extraordinary resilience. Nothing could bring her down. The Sarentu never gave up.
All of this was true. She had endured the Mangkwan's torture, held on until he finally reached her, and even after he had spent every last fiber of himself to kill Wukula, she had been the first one at his side, catching him as he fell.
She was still the Sarentu who was always out in front. The Sarentu who took care of everything.
But So'lek couldn't shake the feeling that it had taken him too long to find the Sarentu. To find her. Some nights he dreamed that Tamtey had not been there on the ground floor of the Hometree, so the endless, blood-soaked search went on. He would wake looking worse for wear, and she would tease him about it. As though he were the only one still trapped in that nightmare.
Or perhaps it had all ended too fast. He had killed every last Mangkwan, Bukowski had withdrawn from the Western Frontier, Tamtey had come back to hi— to them, and then, of all things, invited him to formally join the Sarentu.
If not for the wildfires still smouldering through Kinglor Forest, So'lek might have believed this was the strange dream.
This was why, when the Sarentu made her invitation, So’lek hesitated.
Tamtey kept the smile on her face, but he could see the stiffness in the tip of her tail.
Ri'nela stepped in at just the right moment. "It's only a ceremony. In our hearts, you've been part of this family for a long time. One of us."
She smiled at him with genuine warmth, clearly having never considered the possibility that he might refuse.
He had thought he would refuse. But the Path of the Promiser was behind him, and for once, he had no reason to.
Tamtey watched from the side. She had been the one to speak first, but now she had stepped back.
Before So'lek could think any of it through, he found that he had already nodded.
So she painted the Sarentu marks onto his face.
They bonded with the Tarsyu.
That was when So'lek became certain something was wrong. Not an obvious mark, just a familiar taste of bitterness, the kind that belonged in a dream. A feeling that should not have been there in that moment. Light as a wisp of spore-smoke, gone in a breath, almost enough for him to believe he had imagined it.
Maybe it was his imagination, So'lek told himself. It had been too long since he had belonged to a family, a clan. It was his own lingering past still dragging at his heels.
While he was still turning over whether and how to raise it with Tamtey, caught between hesitation and the business of the wind-trader caravan, she contacted him first.
Contacted. Not visited.
Through the crackling distortion of the comm, she told him she had a new assignment — she needed to travel to the Upper Plains to warn the clans about the new alliance between the RDA and the Mangkwan. Important work, obviously.
The Sarentu always had important work to do.
When she asked if he wanted to come along, So'lek happened to be about to track a swarm of reyknap, and the refusal slipped out before he thought about it.
Tamtey didn't sound disappointed. If anything, she sounded like she had received exactly the answer she expected.
Sivako, ma So'lek.
She said it in the Sarentu's usual fighting spirit, the way she had before every battle, every impossible enemy. Then she cut the comm.
So'lek stared for a moment. The reyknap scattered, leaving nothing behind but a glinting trail across the clear sky.
He shook his head in annoyance. A sloppy mistake.
He drew a deep breath, found the hunter's calm again, and approached the reyknap nest a second time. The instant a wing-shadow flickered past, he swung up onto Ìley's back and locked onto the trail.
So'lek found three fruit pods. Didn't lose the trail once.
Everything as it should be.
Only they still didn't meet. Tamtey was patrolling the Upper Plains, making sure the Heart of the Plains hadn't been hit again. So'lek was sweeping the last RDA squads out of Kinglor Forest, while keeping an eye on Ri'nela and the Resistance camp, now withdrawn deep into the Clouded Forest.
The arrangement made perfect sense. In a Western Frontier this chaotic, putting the Dogtag Warrior and Death on Wings on the same battlefield would have been a waste.
But they had fought side by side many times before, So'lek realised, with a thread of unease. Was it him, always wanting to keep an eye on the back of someone who liked to charge in solo? Or was it the Sarentu, too eager, stubbornly carving herself a place in his fights? Either way, their partnership had been seamless — everything you could ask for in a comrade-in-arms.
…Everything?
His uneasy reverie was cut short by Kukulope's call. More RDA were inbound — he could already hear the iron birds screaming. The wind-trader caravan was far too visible a target. They had to get the cargo ship moving again. So'lek signalled the traders to take cover and called Ìley into the fight.
As the burning fighter plummeted with a roar, the dangerous question was shelved for now.
He had to deal with what was in front of him. There were too many people here who didn't know how to fight, weren't used to being under fire. Keeping them alive came first.
The problem was, in the middle of a war, the list never got shorter.
A week. Weeks. Months. So'lek caught only scattered fragments of Tamtey's news through the comms. Teylan contacted him more often — intelligence work demanded it.
Tamtey popped up in the background of these conversations from time to time, cheerfully greeting him, comparing arrow counts and RDA kills for the day. Then she would hurry off for things to do. Sometimes she sounded a little tired, but before So'lek could say anything, she would rally and joke her way past it.
She didn't invite him again.
Which was normal. It should have been a good sign, meaning the Upper Plains weren't in serious trouble. She wasn't in serious trouble.
So'lek tried not to think about whether Tamtey would contact him if she did run into real trouble. They were companions. Weren't they?
At least Teylan was with her. He had no reason to worry.
But on an evening when the sky burned with a fiercely vivid twilight, he picked up the comm for no reason at all.
"…Tamtey?"
He waited. After a moment, a familiar voice came through.
"…Hey, So'lek." Her voice was light, half-lost in static. "…Everything alright on your end? Something happen?"
"…Nothing. Everything's fine." He faltered, not knowing what to say. "…You?"
"Same." she said. Brief.
So'lek thought that was the end of it. But after a pause, Tamtey's voice came back. "…Where are you?"
"The floating mountains." So'lek found that answering was far easier than asking. "I'm at the top. The clouds are good today."
She laughed softly. "That's nice. You should fly with Ìley."
"I've flown enough today. Ìley's resting."
"Then what are you doing?"
Talking to you.
"Just sitting here." He thought for a moment. "You?"
"…Amay and I went on patrol. Checked an old RDA base, but didn't find anyone." Her voice was baiting him to ask more.
"What did you find?"
"A kite. Fa'zak lost some a while back, and one of them got stuck in a windbent treetop. Amay thought it was something to eat and got very excited, so I had to go find her some moonscarab eggs to make up for it."
"She deserved them."
"I know. I make her treats all the time. Amay eats far better than Ìley does."
"Oh? So it's not just scrounging up fish wherever you can?"
"She likes fish! You can't blame me for treating Amay just because you're not quick enough to do the same. Ìley's been putting up with you for ages."
"He has not. Ìley is very well looked after."
"Sure, sure—" Tamtey drew the words out lazily, and So'lek could picture her tilting her head back with that sly little smile. "You're so good at taking care of things. Real shame Zeswa didn't invite you to look after their zakru. I was just helping them track one down the other day. There's this little one who keeps wandering off on adventures…"
Her voice turned light and quick as she told the story of the little one's escapades. So'lek listened in silence. The vast orange-and-white disc of Polyphemus rose into the night sky. Bioluminescent moss flickered beside him. At some point he had lain down. He was smiling, and had been for a while.
So'lek sat up almost in alarm.
He hadn't caught what Tamtey said — maybe she hadn't said anything. Then she called his name. "So'lek, I need to head to the Circle, return the kite to Fa'zak. See you soon."
So'lek knew they wouldn’t be seeing each other any time soon.