Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Five

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Starr shrugged and looked out the window again. "I don't know. I just want things to be normal."

"Uhm, well basic learning how to speak common would be good for Amari, I personally enjoy history and biology. Like, what the terran series called." He paused for a moment to think. "Planet Earth...? I think that what they called it."

"Why Terra specifically?" Armin asked politely, he was curious okay?

Marcus looked up surprised, holding a sheepish look. "Their, deserts is supposedly what our home planet was before we were taken away from it."

"your world was a desert world?" Armin looked interested, though it was kinda hard to tell as most of his face was hidden under a breathing mask. "that would explain the blood drinking, a good source of water in a water scarce environment." He mused more to himself than anything.

"At least that what my mother told me." He said with a nod. "There was, specific species of a animals we use to eat but when taken in captivity they were harder to breed so they feed us humanoid blood."

"I am sorry to hear of your race's past." Armin spoke sincerely. "there are, it seems, too many species enslaved in this universe. May I ask how you came to be free? If... you are comfortable discussing such things."

Skye nodded, she would think about it. With magic not working, it wouldn't be hte same, but it would be as good as they could get.

~~~
"I will go look and see what we have" Sawna said with a smile. She looked to Armin and Starr and dipped her head before turning to go.

"Do you know where your homeworld is?" Starr asked, yeah, she was curious too.

Marcus arched a brow, while he wasn't surprise about the spider guy being curious Star threw him out lf the loop. He paused for a moment before deciding to be open. "Honestly it was through the force of the galactic council when they were decided to make gladiators fights illegal other then within specific cultures that have it done within their own species. The Free Colonies helped and offered us a planet to colonize. I was bred and raise as a gladiator, my freedom was the day the arena shut down, I had to fight for my mate's freedom though because she was a Shard.." he looked at Star and sighed shaking his head. "This knowledge is lost to us, the council has been attempting to find it but we have very little info as the slavers destroyed the information in malice."

Starr frowned at that and shook her head. "I hope your world itself wasn't destroyed as mine was. Hopefully it can be found."

Armin nodded, looking thoughtful. He wondered if the Swarm would know anything, sadly they weren't here.
"We are told you worked for the... man Matthew." he couldn't quite stand to say slaver. "Forgive my bluntness but, given your past, I must ask... why?"

"The free Colonies leader Nila approach me when the ship was under rule by a man more evil then one would though of Matthew being." Marcus said, there was no attempts to appear pitiful like he was force to do this. "She needed someone on the inside with a medical background and of a race that would be desperate enough to accept a job from that man. I accepted, even though I knew the risks and dangerous plus the stigma that would obviously come. My job was to filter through information to her to help them free any slaves the ship captured. Back then the previous capitan favored the sex trade, Matthew at the time was his play thing if you get my gesture." He paused for a few moments, "I was the crew medic, never once did I work on or harm slaves. I was there though when Matthew attempted to overthrow the previous captain; he failed. The price of that was to become a slaver himself, I chose to stay to keep suspensions down and again filter information. I know this does not defend what that crew had done to you, or to countless lives they have harmed. Even though my actions saved few it was better then none." He stopped, looking at them both.

Armin nodded slowly. "How many do you think you saved? How did you get them away without arousing suspicion?" he paused. "I apologize, I ask too many questions. " He ducked his head.

Starr nodded as she listened to him speak "Some of the others can't get past what was done to us, but I know he wanted out." She said softly.

Armin nodded. "it is a shame he never got that chance..." He trusted Starr's judgement, absolutely.

Marcus chuckled at the spider centaur, his ear twitching as Amari went back to sleep. "More then I can honestly count, and honestly I don't know at times. Since I was allowed to contact my family we did develop a coded way of communication to help relay information." The Arran looked at Star, "What Matthew did was wrong, and unforgivable. He did feel remorse though, mainly because he broke one of the few moral rules he had; don't harm the children. The Family never told him about the young on board, and when the one Thor attempted to Assult Lai he took some, minor vengeance at thw time and did destroy a large chunk of their base." He shrugged, "that does not and will not defend his actions. I hope though his children can be raised without the stigma of what their father did.. wherever Lai chose to go into hiding."

"I forgave him, just as I forgave your part in it. I forgave him before we reached the beach planet to drop his crew off." Starr said quietly. "I hope his kids and Lai can live free." She added, looking down and touching her egg as she did.

He nodded, "And I hope all six of them don't follow their father." He added in agreement. Oh boy Matthew and Ellie would be *delighted* to hear Matthew2 managed to have six kids.

Armin looked surprised. "I was not aware many humanoids had such large litters." Most he'd ever encountered had one or two at a time, a limitation apparently of their biology.

"The mother is a Avian Keeper hybrid, apparently large 'clutches' is normal. They also have very high lung capacity for screaming too." He cringe, as the ship medic afterall he had to help with the birth.

"That must be an awful lot of work." Armin mused. Vavare young were pretty self sufficient but from all he'd seen of keepers and avians, they weren't. He couldn't begin to imagine caring for a typical large vavare litter if they were as demanding as humanoid infants apparently were.

"Six?" Starr asked with a frown. Wow, that was a lot of kids for one female to handle on her own, and being on the run didn't help.

He nodded, "I have kept contact with her but I don't know where she has chosen to stay for the time being. The children..." he paused with this look of confusing, "For some unknown reason they speed of growth was unnatural quick, I wasn't able to research into their genetics at the time to understand why."

"Well, that is awfully convenient." Armin remarked. He shook his head. It wasn't their concern though. "Your own child.." He looked past Marcus to the sleeping form. "Are they alright? We heard you were both severely injured."

"I suspect it has something to do with the keeper genetics but.." he shrugged, then look at where spider boy looked. "I... well physically yes, mentally I don't know... this is his first time being, free and I don't think he fully sure what to do. Adding that the leg there of his was a new addition I think he gone into a form of culture shock."

Starr nodded and chuckled softly "Yes, new places and new people can make it hard on someone who doesn't know it yet.

Armin nodded sympathetically. "Adapting to a life of freedom is difficult after so long in captivity, the loss of a limb does not help matters." He'd lost a leg in his escape all those years ago, he really did empathise.

He nodded in agreement, "Also adding in the mixture of a father he never met and learning you have six more siblings plus a few nieces and nephews probably didn't help." Marcus rubbed his forehead, "My wife is going to kill me.."