“Hey, that eye thing,” I said quietly to Tasha. “What is that about?”
It didn’t seem to have anything to do with providing light in dark areas, because I’d seen Zohro’s eyes go all white in the bright sunshine of morning, and I’d seen him shift them back to pink in the darker light of the house at night. The warden’s eyes were almost never white, consistently maintaining their warm orange hue.
“Oh. That. It’s tied to emotion. Strong emotion of any sort. Anger. Fear. Love. Pain.” She hesitated, then quickly added, “Arousal. I’m writing a whole guide on Zabrian biology and culture right now, similar to the one about humans I wrote for the Zabrians.”
“The manual Fallon mentioned?”
“Correct. Though, like I said before, I consider it more of a primer.” She watched Warden Tenn pull some more of their personal effects out of the small boxy compartment on the back of his vehicle – his slicer, I assumed. “I think there are some cultural connotations with the white eyes as well,” she went on. “From what I understand, it’s considered proper and polite in Zabrian society to keep your eyes from going white. For males especially, letting the white come through can bequite humiliating. It indicates a lack of character, and a lack of control.”
“Damn. That’s… That’s quite harsh, isn’t it?” I asked. “You said the whiteness is only tied to feeling an emotion, right? Isn’t the true control about how you act in response to that emotion? That would be like someone judging you for your heartrate increasing or something.”
“You could certainly make that argument,” Tasha said. “But, as I think the very existence of this planet proves, the Zabrian Empire is… It’s not exactly flexible, or even reasonable, in these matters.”
“Maybe these guys are better off way out here,” I muttered. Although I knew Zohro certainly didn’t feel that way.
“I think you could absolutely make that argument as well.” She patted my shoulder. “Why don’t you go get some rest? It’s been a tough day. And we’ll have the wedding in the morning.”
“Yeah,” I agreed weakly as Tasha went to join her husband.
After that, I visited the outhouse, then returned to the house. I didn’t find Zohro in the kitchen, but when I started washing my hands in the sink there, I heard the heavy stride of his boots on the floor behind me.
“How are your hands?” he asked, leaning in behind me and scrutinising my sudsy fingers.
“Not too bad,” I told him, rinsing and wiggling them for him. “Definitely better than this morning.”
“I will make you more of the salve tomorrow. We should apply it twice daily as tolerated until all signs of irritation are gone.”
I twisted to look at him, and found his face very close to mine.
My heart flipped, then took off like a spooked animal.
His eyes went suddenly white.
He shoved away from me and headed for the door.
Oh. OK. Bye.
“I will retrieve the bedding.”
“I just checked it,” I said. “The sheets are dry but not the quilt. Do you have an extra one?”
“No.”
“Alright… So, what do you want to do about that, then?”
He turned to face me, frowning. Good God, he really was good-looking. All haughty and frowny with that jaw and that hair and…
“What doyouwant to do about it?” he countered.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “It’s your bed.”
“The bed, like everything else on the property, is at your complete disposal,” Zohro said. His eyes burned brighter, something hot and raw going through them. “Did you want me to share the bed with you?”
“I mean, where else are you going to sleep?”
“Outside, as I did last night.”
“I’m not going to make you sleep outside if you don’t want to!” I dried my hands on a clean rag.
