Dignity [3]

Luna was devastated. There was so much at risk. The entire world in fact. Yet she had imperiled the lives of countless because she couldn't shut her mouth and speak properly, couldn't heed a statement from an Ancestor spoken directly to her, and let her body cloud her mind.

Luna's mind raced as she tried to think of how to salvage the situation. She didn't know how to re-earn the trust she seemingly broke in a moment. She desperately wanted to speak, but seeing Liam's frigid eyes and his defensive stance as he stepped away from the door for her to leave, she bowed her head.

Luna started to trudge out of the cabin. She finally mustered the courage to speak and said "I'm sorry, I never meant to wrong you, and I am grateful for you saving my life."

"Yo-"Liam scoffed and was about to point out how capable she was at manipulating people when a stern female voice interrupted him.

<Liam. Shut up for a moment. Don't speak. Just listen.> Noona said this audibly for both Liam and Luna to hear. Liam froze, unsure why he was listening to Noona, he was about to speak again when Noona asked,

<Luna, I want to know. What was your purpose in coming here to find Liam?>

Luna stopped on her way out. She wanted to tell Noona and Liam everything, but with the way Liam was looking at her she knew she wouldn't have the chance. She gathered her courage. Her wilted shoulders raised a little straighter and she mustered everything in her to look into the eyes of the man that looked at her like an insect. She could only go with a Hail Mary.

Luna spoke gently and slowly. "My Nan told me that nothing I say would convince the Ancestor to help me. She said that after it got to a point where I couldn't convince him, I should say the following words:

"Sage…you aren't in North America any more, these aren't the Appalachian mountains, and if I leave, Shouxian Haoyu will destroy this world too."

When Liam heard these words, he snapped. 'Sage? Shouxian Haoyu?' No one from this time should know him or Shouxian Haoyu. Just hearing those anachronistic words caused his fury to tower to the sky. He had been tricked.

Even after his reservations the first time, she thought that revealing more information she shouldn't know would somehow gain his favor? Liam's eyes blazed with killing intent for the first time in the conversation with Luna.

Just as Liam was spiraling out of control, before the last thread of his sanity was soaked with bloodlust and he lost his tenuous connection to words, like liquid nitrogen poured on boiling hot iron, Noona's words sounded out loud.

<SHE IS TELLING THE TRUTH.>

Liam's mind seemed to be completely overturned. He was heaving large bellowing breaths trying to stop his rage just long enough to ask Noona what she meant when Noona continued.

<Her pulse hasn't changed, her pupil dilation has remained at 73% due to the low light environment, her pores have not shown any expansion from sweat, and most obviously, the Tic she has where she wraps her tail around herself when she becomes defensive didn't happen. She is telling 100% the truth as she perceives it. Liam, she is not an intended double agent from Shouxian Haoyu. Even Shouxian Haoyu isn't intelligent enough to plan ten thousand years just to mess with you.>

'I do what with my tail? Wait, Shouxian Haoyu isn't the Ancestral name of the Breaking but a person? Ten thousand years? I fell for a Grandpa? Wait what am I thinking!?'

Luna's mind was in chaos as much as Liams' had previously been. Liam opened his mouth to ask a question but before he could Luna's gaze turned fierce and she yelled, "I demand you tell me how old you are! How many grandchildren do you have!?"

As if the magic code to completely undo Liam's fury, this nonsensical question completely restored the gentle smile to his eyes. Liam may not trust Luna's words previously, but he knew Noona wouldn't lie to him about something this important. If he couldn't trust Noona, he'd end up dead or worse in Shouxian Haoyu's hands anyway.

He didn't laugh, but managed to carefully speak very softly. "Luna, it seems there is much we should learn about each other. I apologize for my previous assumptions. Let's start over."

"I am Liam Smith, My approximate age since I am not sure anymore is ten thousand and thirty five years old. Give or take a few centuries. I have no children, nor grandchildren. The one woman I ever loved was killed by the man who's name you spoke earlier. That was ten thousand years ago, but I didn't realize it had been ten thousand years until literally yesterday. So, in a sense, you could say I'm thirty-five years old."

Noona didn't need to breathe. She was a machine. But if she could have, she would have sighed in relief. Liam's Neural stability had dropped down to only 21% earlier. If Luna really had been a planted double agent, there was a very real chance that Liam's rage would have consumed not just Luna, but himself as well.

<Idiot, you don't tell the cute new girlfriend you are older than dir->

A casual smack flattened the noisy bug in the room.

Luna's chaotic thoughts had just started to become calm when one word threw them back into a mess again.

'girl…girlfriend?'

Luna pushed that tidbit of information to the back of her mand…mind…her mind. This situation was too important.

Her Nan's eyes bled for this opportunity for her to correct her own shortcomings and she now knew that her Nan had probably foreseen her flustered appearance. She blushed in horror when that thought crossed her mind, but now was NOT the time!

"I am Luna Huali De. Daughter of the tribal chief Sol Huli and future Saint of the Huli tribe."

<Yeah you are.>

"Shut it…don't say such obvious things."

Luna was confused at first about the two jibes between Liam and Noona. But then, when she translated her own name into Ancestral, she blushed furiously.

'I'm obviously beautiful? To an Ancestor?'