"I'll try."

Aliara bit her lip. I've spent my whole life running, she told herself. I can run away again, sure. And then what? Sooner or later, things will get hard again. Am I ever going to find an alternative to running away? Her future unrolled before her, minute by minute: she could leave, make it to the surface easily enough. Fall in with another group. Take another lover. Forget what happened down here, consign it to dream. And then?

And then? What kind of future was that? It was just her past, reheated and served again.

Every instinct she had was screaming at her to go, to escape while she could, to abandon the warren and the driders and Teysa. She wanted to. And she knew that if she did she'd regret it for the rest of her life.

"Yes," she said, so quietly that at first she didn't hear herself. Then again: "Yes. Teysa, I-- I'll stay. For now, at least. I'll help you."

Teysa's lip quavered. She stared in frank disbelief. She was so sure I'd run, Aliara realized. She was preparing herself for it.

The drider's lips moved, but nothing came out. She held out her arms plaintively, and Aliara stepped forward into them. She tried not to shudder as Teysa's grey arms embraced her, tried not to tremble in fear at the musty, spicy scent. She lifted her own arms a little awkwardly and hugged Teysa back.

And then...

And then, something clicked in her head. It was subtle, that click: a track of positioning, maybe, or the precise angle at which she held her neck. She had her arms around Teysa's shoulders like this and her head pressed into the crook of her neck like this, and all of a sudden, she was hugging Teysa again. Any couple who spends enough time together figures out all the little ways their bodies fit into each other, the thousand little ways that elbow and shoulder and wrist nestle together with jigsaw perfection. Curves slide against curves, skin presses against skin. Where there were two people, there is temporarily a gestalt entity: a couple, two hearts beating as one, two bodies in perfect sync. Teysa had been wracked and warped by the forces that had preserved her life, and yet here she was again: the warmth of her, the smoothness, the way she cradled Aliara to her bosom and rocked her to sleep. It was all still here.

Aliara stiffened, afraid even to breathe. She tilted her head against Teysa's shoulder and held her with a fierce and frightened strength. Her Tey was here, buried somewhere, and she would rescue her. She vowed that to herself.

The moment passed, and Aliara felt herself drifting out of alignment. She became aware of the chitinous abdomen pressing against her hip. Where Teysa's leg had been was now a spindly, narrow thing, a stabbing spear of black carapace. Even the scent of her was wrong. Teysa had always smelled like sweat and armor polish, earthy organic smells. Now Aliara could only smell spices like those from a corpse in a desert tomb. She broke the hug and stepped backward.

"Teysa," she said and looked up into her lover's eyes. Teysa looked down at her with undisguised hope all over her face. It was hard to look at-- her features were the same ones Aliara had grown used to, but her eyes were inky pools of blackness.

"Yes?" Teysa asked. Once again, there was that buzz beneath her voice, a rasp so slight that if Aliara wasn't listening for it she might have missed it entirely. She reached out and took Teysa's hand, and despite the warmth and softness of her palm, it was impossible to ignore the talons that now tipped her fingers. Aliara pushed all of that down. Details. Just details. It's still Teysa under all that.

"I love you," Aliara said, and tried as hard as she could to mean it. Teysa's face blossomed into an expression of pure, relieved joy, and Aliara smiled in return. Maybe this will work after all.