Starfish

23.2

Nina seemed stunned. She blinked several times, and the longer she looked at him the stronger the resemblance became. He continued, "Grey eyes are extremely rare for Dreen – most are green, yellow or blue. When you first arrived the similarity startled me. One moment I was annoyed with Meem for interrupting my preparations to meet you, and the next... It was as though Timam had returned, and she was staring at me from a stranger's face. It disturbed me so much that I avoided you, unable to cope with the shock."

"That's why you were weird?"

He nodded. "Among other reasons. As I said when you confronted me I was unused to humans – I had yet to overcome my own prejudices. But yes, for a while I was deeply unsettled by how much you resemble her."

"I do?"

"Strikingly so. Would you like to see?" Ardus reached for his tablet, "If you will forgive an old man his sentimentality, I have some images."

"If...if it's okay." He nodded again and Nina stood and rounded the fire, taking a seat on the driftwood nearby. The download had finished, and he disconnected the device and opened a folder. He selected his favorite and passed the tablet to Nina. "You are, of course, much younger and smaller and obviously not Dreen, but perhaps you will understand why I was so..." Attracted, drawn, confused, shocked? "...surprised."

Nina took the tablet and Ardus watched her face go from curiosity to awe. On the screen, a Dreen woman with steel-gray eyes and skin the color of rich, red earth – save for her rust-colored face, throat and chest – held a primate on her arm, smiling as she offered it a piece of fruit. Her smile, captured forever, was stunning – the upturned corners of her mouth pulled shallow tucks into her cheeks, and her head was tilted at an amused angle as the primate reached for the fruit. In her eyes was a deep gentleness, an affection for the animal on her arm that most would feel for their own children. It was a look that still pulled at his heart all these years later. "Oh Ardus, she's gorgeous."

"That she was. I made many enemies the day we went public with our relationship."

Nina glanced at him, her eyebrows drawn together. "What do you mean?"

"As you can see, Timam was a highly desirable woman," Ardus tried not to sound smug. "She was beautiful, intelligent, magnetic. I, like so many others, was drawn to her – she had a way of making everyone in a room feel seen, while still being the center of attention herself. She had a way of seeing everything – Dreen, animals, even plants – as an individual, able to see what made each unique. She made anyone who met her feel special. If you had met her, you would understand why...why losing her has made me go dark." Ardus sighed, then laughed softly. "Forgive me, it would seem that my mouth has run away with me."

Nina shook her head. "I don't mind, she sounds amazing. How did you meet her?"

"Timam came to work at the university after the old head of the biology department retired. I worked for him in the same capacity that Athe works for me, and when the position passed into Timam's hands she inherited me after a fashion."

"Timam was your superior?"

"I reported to her, yes. I was an undergraduate then, and Timam an accomplished scientist in her own right long before we met. At first it was merely a professional arrangement, she leading the department and I acting as her hands, running her errands and keeping her appointments. But it would not be long afterwards that she, finding herself with a young, toothsome male assistant, had me cornered. I daresay we spent the rest of the evening in her office getting more, ah, familiar with each other." He smirked and Nina's eyes went wide, scandalized. Her hands flew to her mouth and she laughed. 

"Ardus! In her office? I never thought you were the type!

"I was young!" he defended, grinning and spreading his hands wide. "In any case, Timam was impossible to resist. She had been tracking me for months, giving me looks and suggesting we work closely on her projects. And as I said, she was magnetic. When she finally gave me Omi's Necklace, I crumbled like a sand sculpture."