Soulbound Ch 17: A Home Between Stars!

(Kaida)

Showing Scott around my home was... surprisingly fun. I hadn't thought much about what it would be like to give someone a tour of my domain—especially someone who wasn't even born in this corner of existence—but the look on his face made every little thing feel brand new again.

"This way," I said, gently holding out my hand so he could hop on. He climbed aboard with this mix of curiosity and caution, like someone stepping onto a roller coaster that might launch them into the stratosphere. Cute.

We drifted through a corridor of gently pulsing light, the walls smooth like glass, but warm like skin. Everything here was alive with some part of me. Or maybe I was just alive with it—hard to tell where one ended and the other began sometimes.

First stop: the Gallery.

"This," I said, letting my hand float near a collection of slowly rotating silhouettes, "is my collection of etherforms."

He tilted his head. "They're... floating shadows?"

"They're impressions of different soul shapes I've encountered over time. Each one has its own resonance. Art, in my culture, isn't always visual—it's a memory you can feel."

Scott's brow furrowed. "So... it's art made of vibes?"

I giggled. "Exactly."

He looked at them a bit longer, and I could feel his awe even without touching his thoughts directly. Then he pointed to a crystalline pillar nearby. "And that one?"

"That's a statue," I said. "A literal one. Not everything's abstract."

The piece was a tall, prismatic tower with jagged wings blooming from its sides, meant to represent duality and harmony. I sculpted it after a long meditation cycle a few centuries ago. He just stared at it with his mouth slightly open, and for once, he didn't make a joke.

After a while, we drifted further, and I took him into what I suppose would be the equivalent of a living room—though we call it the Aurai Hearth. It's an open, hovering platform wrapped in concentric energy rings, with shifting light patterns on the floor and cushions that float slightly above the surface. Kind of like a lounge designed by a nebula.

"This is where I come to relax or connect with other Aetherions," I said, letting him down onto one of the cushions. It dipped slightly under his weight, adapting to his body immediately.

He looked around like a kid in a zero-gravity candy store. "Your home is incredible."

I smiled at that—couldn't help it. The way he said it, the wonder in his voice—it warmed me.

But then he said your home, and for the briefest moment, something small and quiet tugged in my chest. Not our home. Just yours. I didn't let it show, of course. I understood. He was still adjusting. Inner beings aren't used to having homes bigger than a neighborhood, let alone one that floats between galaxies.

So I let it go. For now.

"This," I said, gesturing around us, "is just the first level of my domain."

He blinked, mid-chew on another Therilari I had offered him. "First level? You mean... there's more?"

I grinned, teeth and all. "Oh yes. My domain spans eight levels. This is just the welcoming layer. The top."

He sat up straighter. "You have eight of these?"

"Mhm," I said with a little flair. "Each one built around different energies and functions. Some are for meditation, some for creation, some for containment. And if I ever need more, I can always make another."

His eyes widened. "You can just make more?"

"Of course. Actually..." I tilted my head thoughtfully. "I was going to expand the eighth level a little later. Maybe you can join me for that."

His face lit up like a star cluster. "I'd love to."

And stars, I meant it when I said it. The thought of building something new with him—having his energy tangled up in the shaping of a space meant just for us—was exciting in a way I hadn't felt in a long, long time.

We sat there for a while in the Aurai Hearth, just enjoying the stillness, the soft hum of the atmosphere, the feel of something bigger than either of us settling comfortably around the edges of our shared silence.

And for the first time, I think he began to feel it too.

That this place... could be his home.

As Scott settled comfortably into the plush center of my palm, his legs dangling slightly over the edge, he tilted his head up at me with that ever-curious glimmer in his eyes. "So... do you get a lot of company? Like, other Aetherions?"

I chuckled softly, brushing a thumb gently along the edge of his arm—carefully, like he was something soft and sacred. "Not often. Aetherions, by nature, are solitary. We tend to... keep to ourselves. Not out of arrogance or fear—just preference. Solitude gives us space to expand. To think. To be."

"Really?" he said, eyebrows raised. "You guys don't hang out at all?"

"I didn't say never," I replied, smiling down at him. "I have friends. And now that I've formed a soulbound... they'll come knocking. Probably eager to see who managed to link with me. Some of them will be jealous."

He blinked. "Jealous? Of me?"

"Of us," I corrected gently. "The soulbound connection... it's rare. Sacred. There are some who've spent eons searching and never found theirs."

Scott rubbed the back of his neck. "So, not only am I an alien to your people, I'm also someone they're going to envy."

"Exactly." I smirked. "Congratulations, little star."

That made him laugh, a quiet snort as he looked around the room—the Aurai Hearth's ambient lighting still gently glowing around us. "So what do you do for fun when you're not being the center of cosmic envy?"

"Fun?" I echoed, peering down at the little man tucked into the crease of my palm.

"Yeah," he said, a teasing grin tugging at his lips. "Like, do you watch movies? Play games? You know... kick back?"

I blinked. The word "movie" was oddly shaped in my mind. But the moment he said it, I felt a trickle of understanding stream across the bond we shared. The connection between our souls pulsed with new insight—his memories seeping into me like ink spreading through water.

Ah. Movies. Recorded light and sound, condensed narratives of emotion and sensation played back on screen-like surfaces. Visual storytelling. Holographic, at times. I tilted my head slightly, letting my mind comb through the ideas and fragments as they blossomed between us.

"I think," I said slowly, "I know something you would like."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

Instead of answering, I closed my fingers gently around him and cradled him close to my chest as I reclined into one of the floating armrests that made up the circular seat in the center of the Hearth. The entire chamber responded to my motion. Light shimmered through the walls like liquid glass.

I pressed a series of shifting glyphs embedded along the side of the chair—glyphs only I could interact with—and the room around us began to change.

The air rippled. The crystal walls darkened to a deep, twilight green. Branches began to bloom into existence overhead. Leaves shimmered into being, suspended in midair until they found their gravity. Soon, the Hearth had dissolved into an immersive illusion—a dense forest of bioluminescent flora, towering trees with translucent bark, and a sky woven from ribboned starlight.

Scott sat up straighter in my palm, jaw slack. "What... what is this?"

"This," I said with a soft smile, "is what we call a Lunatheon. It's like your 'movie'—but fully projected around the viewer. All senses, not just sight and sound. The environment adapts in real-time to your perspective."

His mouth opened again, then closed. Then opened. "So, like... a 4D movie on ten cups of coffee?"

I laughed—a warm, melodic sound that caused a few birds in the illusion to flutter into the trees. "Something like that."

I lowered him gently into my lap as the forest thickened around us. He nestled into the soft folds of my robe, eyes wide, head turning every which way as the scene unfolded. It was my favorite Lunatheon—one I watched often when I needed comfort. A story about a star-being who lost its light and had to journey through collapsing constellations to find it again.

The chair swayed beneath us as the illusion shifted. Our seat lifted from the ground, drifting among branches that swayed with motion. Animals passed beneath us—some real, some mythic. Music swelled from nowhere and everywhere.

Scott looked absolutely enchanted.

"This is..." he whispered, "unbelievable."

I didn't answer right away. I was too busy watching him. The way his eyes sparkled, the way his breath caught when a massive creature moved through the trees below. He was so small here, but his soul—the part of him that shone through—felt so expansive.

And yet, even as joy filled my chest, something else pressed quietly beneath it.

The thought I'd been avoiding since we left his galaxy.

Veridia.

His world.

The planet I had already tucked safely away, suspended in the cocoon of my interdimensional bag and sealed within my gate.

I would have to subjugate it.

Even now, as he leaned into my palm with childlike wonder, I knew. I would have to determine the dominant species, assess threats, neutralize instability. Bring structure. Bring obedience. Control.

Not because I wanted to hurt them—but because they were now under my protection. And protection, in my realm, meant sovereignty.

My smile faltered, just a little.

Scott didn't notice. He was too busy laughing as a glowing creature soared overhead.

I reached up, brushing a strand of my hair back, and whispered to the forest as the Lunatheon continued around us.

"We'll deal with it soon," I told myself.

Just not tonight.

Tonight, I would let him enjoy the story.

Because when the time came... when I told him what I had to do... I would need him to remember that I never stopped trying to make him feel at home.