Page 65 of Regi's Crew
“Divashi’s Brown. I wish he was here,” Dante repeated. When Regi still had a poleaxed expression, he added, “I prefer to ride an animal I know, even if he is a cantankerous son-of-a-bitch that is Ter’s spirit animal.”
Regi smiled. “You are brilliant.”
“Why?”
Regi leapt up from the couch. “One could argue that Divashi’s Brown has dedicated himself to you as Peaches has.”
“And?”
“And you have every right as an exalted to insist that your ship accommodate your chosen companions. If you ask for Divashi’s Brown, short of an emergency, we must go back and retrieve him before starting new temple business. The relationship between an exalted and a sacred animal is not to be interfered with. That will slow us by at least two weeks.”
“So we would reach Earth two weeks later?” Dante didn’t see the brilliance in that plan.
“Two weeks for the exalteds of this ship to hear your logic and grow used to outsiders. Those who argue that huumans are another animal cannot maintain that position indefinitely when you join the debates. They will be even less likely to maintain it when they see you interact with sacred animals.”
Dante smiled. “That's brilliant.” And it gave Dante two more weeks to avoid thinking about his family and the potential disaster that was humans and Kowri meeting.
“Would you like to remove clothing and explore the compatibility of our biologies more?” Regi asked. As awkwardly phrased as that was, it still sounded like a brilliant plan.
“Oh yeah,” Dante agreed. He stood and pulled Regi to his feet before leading him to the largest bedroom. This time they were going to go slow. In fact, Dante couldn’t imagine a better way to spend all damn day. The exalteds and interstellar diplomacy would have to wait.
