[Flashback] The universe does not sing; it hisses

[Silen]

Silen looked at the Naya sympathetically. Well, his situation was indeed better than hers. At least because the naga had been sent to reach for his home planet, supplied with documents he'd never had before and some traveling money. Lost in thought, he simply tuned out the part where she mentioned her fathers. He barely remembered growing up in a communal family before the ending up in slavery. And as for elves, where he'd been raised, fatherhood seemed like an unimportant concept, or so it had seemed. And he also had never heard of Ghael before those self-proclaimed chain-breakers mentioned it, and even if he had, he didn't remembered it.

Still, when an attractive female asked for help, it was hard to refuse, indeed. It wasn't even about Naya's obvious beauty. In fact, she was the first person of his own kind he'd spoken to since coming of age, and if he didn't have to keep an eye on their surroundings, Silen would've been staring at the ground, stunned by her mere presence and listening to the soft rustling of her tail on the ground. She clearly knew more about the world around them than he did.

"Sure, I won't leave you alone," agreed the young naga. But the next sentence made him turn his head towards her. "Stealing? Well, I guess I’ll have to treat you well then." He immediately thought to himself that his own list of debtors had now expanded to include those guys who'd lied to him, claiming he only needed to save one prisoner. If, of course, they even knew there were others locked up in those cells.

"I’m not afraid at all!" he even cursed, taking offence. "We just need firstly to get out of here, then we’ll figure out what to do next. Still, we better try to contact your family. There has to be a way to send them a message. How long were you held captive? Who were those kidnappers? Slave traders?"

As they spoke, they'd already left the area of the former customs post and crossed the wasteland, heading toward the more populated zone around the spaceport. The gunshots and shouts were barely audible now. A couple of nagas had just emerged onto the ruined concrete road when two police fliers appeared ahead, heading toward the scene of the commotion.