5. THREE

three

Three days later – Tuann ship

Somewhere between Jettie and Ta Sa’Riel

“Wait for me here,” Kira told the figure next to her.

The person, their face and hair hidden by the hood of the cloak they wore, dropped back, waiting on the threshold as Kira advanced toward Graydon.

Her footsteps echoed in the large room, the sounds bouncing off the empty surfaces of the walls and floor.

As irritated as she’d been at being told she had to return to Ta Sa’Riel via a Tuann ship, she had to hand it to the Tuann. Their ships were works of art.

Better than the human rust buckets she was used to. Every bit as beautiful as a Haldeel cruiser.

She didn’t know if it was because she was Tuann but she found a part of her preferring this ship to the Haldeel’s.

Every room and communal area were as perfect as they were functional.

Of the areas of the ship she’d seen, she’d have to say this room was her favorite. Something about it called to her. The place was simple. The walls, floor, and ceiling a dark black that transitioned nicely into the transparent floor-to-ceiling wall that offered a view of space.

The sound of Kira’s footsteps changed as she stepped onto glass. She paused, noting the stars streaming beneath her feet before examining her surroundings a little more closely.

What she’d previously thought of as a simple wall was actually more of a bubble, allowing viewers to step onto the glass. It gave the illusion of the person being in space. Without an EV suit, armor, or any other barrier separating her from the great universe beyond.

Graydon stood in the middle of it, his back to her as he observed the stars.

Waiting.

“I love it out here,” Kira said, joining him.

There was a quiet peace to being surrounded by the cold beauty of the void. Stars streaming by as the ship made its return voyage to Ta Sa’Riel, the emperor’s home planet and the center of the Tuann empire.

Space had always been the place she felt most at home.

It didn’t matter if sometimes the air was stale from too many times through the Wanderer’s scrubbers or if she was stuck eating nasty MREs when her fresh produce ran out.

She didn’t care that it was inhospitable in the extreme, a single misstep carrying the possibility of death. You had to be on guard at all times. Prepared for that instant when things went wrong—especially when that danger came from an unexpected quarter.

Kira had gotten so used to that heightened sense of alertness that it felt unnatural when it was no longer required.

Awareness spread through Kira as Graydon’s gaze swept over her.

He had always seen too much. Even from the very beginning. His storm gray eyes penetrating her thickest defenses.

With as many secrets as she had, the feeling was disconcerting.

In her more paranoid moments, she thought it would have been better to maintain her distance. Something she recognized as impossible even then.

There was a raw, magnetic pull between them that she’d long given up resisting. Graydon wouldn’t have allowed it anyway.

As the youngest Face of the Tuann emperor, he was used to getting his way. Even when he didn’t, he was capable of turning any situation to his advantage.

There was an almost cruel beauty to the line of his features as he turned to face her more fully.

“I can see the draw. It would seem like freedom out here,” he said.

That was exactly what it was.

Graydon looked past her to the person waiting on the threshold of the room. “Is the hood necessary?”

Kira’s grin was brief. “They have a slight obsession with seeming mysterious. You’ll get used to it.”

Graydon shook his head, not pushing the issue. “I hope you know what you’re doing, coli.”

Kira did too.

“I appreciate the risk you’re taking,” Kira told him.

Gratitude was an uncomfortable and new experience for her.

In the past, she’d always played by the rule that it was far easier and less emotionally messy if she took things into her own hands. Who cared if a few laws got broken?

It was simpler that way.

Unfortunately, such a lifestyle was no longer conducive to her goals. She needed friends—and allies.

Also, she’d looked into doing this on her own. It was virtually impossible to penetrate the tight security of the place where she wanted to go. Not even the two best hackers she knew were confident in their chances of success.

Hence her asking Graydon for a favor of this magnitude.

Graydon’s smile was slightly crooked. “We both know you would have found your own way whether you had my help or not.”

True.

It would have been a tad messier, though. Not to mention she probably would have angered a lot of people she couldn’t afford to offend in the process. At least this way, she wasn’t in jeopardy of being thrown in a jail cell next to the person she was trying to get a conversation with.

Graydon moved past her. “I’m simply glad you chose to use words this time to ask for what you want rather than blunder forward on a dangerous plan that was bound to backfire.”

Kira followed him off the glass and onto the black floor as her companion, sensing Kira had won the argument, glided toward them.

“As always your faith in me is overwhelming,” Kira said in a dry voice.

Graydon’s chuckle rumbled from his chest as he stopped in the center of the room.

Kira frowned before noticing the complicated pattern inlaid into the floor. Almost unnoticed, due to the dark swooping lines that looked like shadows against the dark background.

Kira crouched, tracing a line with one finger. She jolted as a hum of electricity zipped up her arm.

“Recognize it?” Graydon asked.

“Should I?”

Tuann technology wasn’t always obvious. A simple stone could act as an unexpected communication device. A doorway could sometimes teleport you halfway across the planet, and apparently an unobtrusive pattern embedded in a floor could allow one to contact a secure prison—the location of which was so secret this was the only way to gain access.

“Ta Da’an.”

Graydon’s answer made Kira frown.

Her stay on the planet of Ta Da’an, home to House Luatha and her mother’s family, had been short—but memorable.

“I’m still not quite sure how you managed to project your consciousness onto my diplomatic ship since the Nexus isn’t really built for that. But this is the proper way to do the same thing,” Graydon explained.

Kira stiffened, avoiding Graydon’s gaze as she rose. “Ah. That.”

“My captain thanks you for your assistance, by the way.”

Kira’s nod was uncomfortable.

Her actions might have saved his ship and the planet from invasion, but she’d also used the chaos to her own advantage.

“This will enable us to astral project to the prison?” Kira asked.

The term “astral projection” originated from early nineteenth century Earth as a description for what was essentially an out-of-body experience where one projected their consciousness onto the astral plane.

Most humans considered the idea nothing but superstitious nonsense. How fitting that the Wizards, as humans sometimes called the Tuann, were the ones to make the idea into a reality.

Himoto always did say that the separation between magic and science became more and more indistinct as civilizations advanced their technology.

“Something like that,” Graydon said.

Kira’s companion joined them as Graydon lifted his hands, palms facing up as a look of concentration showed on his face. A hum rose all around them before the pattern beneath their feet took on a soft glow that grew.

Graydon’s hands dropped, and the world changed.

The stars disappeared to be replaced by the unrelenting gray of stone.

Kira took a moment to glance around in amazement at the surrealness of it all. Her senses doing a very good job of insisting she was actually standing in a prison cell despite her physical body existing trillions of miles away.

It was all so very real. The smell of mildew and rot all around her. An aura of bleak desperation clung to the walls.

She shivered as a damp chill invaded her bones.

If she concentrated very hard, she could make out the thrum of the ship’s engines under her feet. The feeling grew as black invaded the gray.

Graydon touched her elbow, the black of the room vanishing as her focus snapped. “Careful. If you think too hard, you’ll be pulled back.”

Kira nodded, a little relieved.

If breaking the connection was as simple as a thought, it meant the danger of getting permanently separated from her body was small.

“This is amazing.” Kira touched the wall next to her.

It was more than an illusion. She could actually feel the stone under her fingers. The rough imperfections of the rock.

The bio feedback loop was probably one of the most realistic she’d ever experienced. Leagues beyond what the Consortium created through their online holo experiences.

“I was expecting you a lot sooner than this,” a voice said from the corner of the cell. “Tell me, Phoenix, what brings you to my humble abode?”

Kira looked at the speaker, locating a young man sitting with his back against the wall on the cold, hard floor. His legs were extended in front of him, and there was a flat look in his eyes that reminded Kira of a caged tiger she’d once seen.

The animal was considered a rarity. Almost extinct even on Earth where it had originated.

And like the boy, it possessed an aggression that nothing could hide.

“Aeron. It’s good to see you. You’re looking better.”

It was true. He seemed healthy. Far from the boy barely able to breathe through the blood filling his lungs.

Aeron touched the spot where his injury had been. “Wounded prisoners aren’t as easy to interrogate. That whole threat of dying and all.”

“Yes, your death would be such a shame,” Graydon drawled.

Aeron’s gaze flicked toward the emperor’s Face.

As a general, Aeron was part of the ruling class of Tsavitee. Those Kira had considered her greatest enemy and the mastermind behind their species until recently.

It had become clear, however, that there was a group above them, pulling the strings.

That even the masters had their masters.

She found it interesting that he was in his Tuann form and not the general. It made Kira wonder if the choice was his own or part of some plan.

To Kira’s surprise, Aeron didn’t respond to Graydon’s taunt, instead focusing on the cloaked figured beside Kira. “Who’s your friend?”

“No one to worry about.” To distract him, Kira changed the subject. “I hear you’ve been less than cooperative.”

It worked as his focus jumped back to her. “Would you bow to your captors?”

She wouldn’t. She’d proven that time and time again.

Aeron settled against the wall. “Why have you visited me?”

“You have answers I want. Isn’t that enough?”

Aeron studied Kira for a moment. “If that was the case, you would have been here weeks ago. No. Something has changed.”

Kira held still at the astute observation.

Aeron’s eyes narrowed before widening in realization. “You met her, didn’t you? You found Elise.”

Kira said nothing as Aeron threw his head back on a laugh, the sound containing a hysterical edge.

“Tell me what you know about her and her goals.”

“What’s wrong, Phoenix?” There was a twist on the last word. “Not the reunion you hoped for?”

Kira’s face remained blank as she let him talk, hoping his arrogance would allow something to slip through.

“I take it you know she’s working for us now,” Aeron said. “How does it feel to be made a fool?”

“You’re awful confident I’m the fool in this equation.”

Step one of her goal had been accomplished—verifying that Aeron was aware of Elise’s cooperation.

It was a start. She was close; she could feel it in her bones.

“You mourned a traitor and now you want to find out how deep the betrayal goes,” Aeron guessed.

Kira didn’t give him a reaction; her face blank.

That didn’t stop Aeron. “Elise was one of ours. She has been working with us since the beginning.”

How long had he been waiting for this moment? The moment he could spew venom in her ear. Plant a kernel of doubt that would continue to grow long after this conversation was over.

“She’s not the only one we’ve put by your side either.” Kira’s tiny flinch made Aeron grin. “Do you think your encounter with the young lord and his sister on O’Riley was an accident? Wake up, Phoenix.”

Graydon shifted closer to Kira, placing one hand on her hip as he lowered his head to rumble in her ear. “He’s trying to get in your head.”

Yes, he was.

“You’re nothing but a tool. Every move you made was by our design. Elise’s design.”

Kira was growing tired of this game. It was time to change the set up.

“There’s a lot of things I’m afraid of—Elise being a traitor isn’t one of them,” Kira confessed.

She’d had time to think over the last few days. Once the shock had worn off. Admittedly, it would be easy to question Elise’s loyalties. Had there been something she’d missed all those years ago? Was Elise exactly as Aeron had claimed—a traitor?

Somewhere in asking herself all those questions, she’d remembered Elena, the daughter Elise had left with Kira. The one she had gone to painstaking lengths to hide and protect.

If Elise had been on the Tsavitee’s side, she would have handed Elena over long before now. It was as simple as that. A Tsavitee believer never would have left Elena in Kira’s care.

Kira had to believe Elise had reasons for the actions she’d taken. Until she had proof otherwise, and possibly even after that, Kira wouldn’t think otherwise.

“Tell me—was your incarceration part of the plan?” Kira mused, smiling when his flinch told her she’d struck a nerve. “Were you a sacrifice, Aeron?”

Sloppy of him. Trying to prey on her uncertainty while leaving his own exposed.

“Nice try though. You almost had me.” Kira snickered to herself. That was a lie. He wasn’t even close. “I didn’t come here to talk about Joule and Ziva.”

Or whether they’d been a plant as Aeron suggested. She knew both children well enough to trust they wouldn’t knowingly be a part of any plan to lure her to the Tuann. Of that, she was certain.

Unknowingly was a different story, but that was a concern for another time.

Aeron dropped all pretense of cordiality. “I’m not telling you anything.”

Well then. Kira guessed she should move on to plan B.

“I figured you might be difficult,” Kira said in a chipper voice even she found irritating. “That’s why I brought a friend.”

The figure next to Kira reached up with fingers a tad longer and thinner than any human’s to push back their hood. The face that was revealed was as beautiful as it was alien. Something in the being’s bone structure screamed other. There was no way to tell whether the person was male or female, a kind of absolute androgyny overriding any characteristics that would have declared their sex. There was a perfect balance in the visage that pointed to the person being both and neither.

An eye patch covered one eye. The other a brilliant green.

The expression in those eyes held a wisdom and indifference that was all the more chilling considering the mischievousness that was usually present.

Thin beads were threaded throughout the person’s chin length hair. Three tiny triangles had been painted onto the light brown skin under the right eye.

Aeron froze at the sight of the other.

Something very like fear crossed his face as he started shaking.

“Traitor. You traitor.” What started as a hushed whisper rose to a roar by the end.

Aeron pushed himself against the wall, climbing to his feet in horror. “What are you doing working with one of the Sye?”

So, he did know what Odin was. Kira had wondered.

Odin’s race was special, not experiencing gender in the same way as humans did. For them, the concept was a little more fluid. It allowed them to be female or male as circumstances and desires dictated.

There was also a third form. Something they called the “Sye”—which translated meant all and neither.

“Ah, good. You recognize my friend. I was afraid you wouldn’t.”

Though Odin had assured her he would.

“Do you know what their race does? What it means for one of them to be standing here?” Aeron shouted.

Kira frowned as she spoke to Odin. “I’m a little insulted that he has more of a reaction to you than me.”

Red symbols scrawled across Aeron’s skin as the two bumps where his horns would have been had he been in general form pushed through the skin on his forehead. A whimper left him as the red drained out of the symbols and the bumps vanished.

Aeron slumped against the wall, barely able to stand.

“Calm yourself, brother. No one is here to hurt you,” Odin advised.

Not true. Graydon would have been more than happy to put the hurt on Aeron if it would get them what they needed.

Aeron’s labored pants were loud in the sudden quiet as he focused on Kira. “Do you know who you’re working with?”

“I have an idea.”

Admittedly, most of Odin’s history before meeting Kira was shrouded in mystery, but she knew what was important.

Though she did find Aeron’s overreaction to Odin’s presence quite interesting. It made Kira wonder exactly what part the Sye played in the Tsavitee’s ranks. Something told her they weren’t rank-and-file grunts. That perhaps their ties to the generals were tangled and deep.

“You don’t have any clue.” Aeron sounded very certain of that. “If you did, you wouldn’t be within a thousand miles of them.”

“Why don’t you educate me then?” Kira invited.

She was interested in what he had to say.

“The Sye are the masters’ most trusted pets. They are never free,” Aeron hissed.

“You’re wrong about that.” Odin reached up to remove the eye patch, revealing a sunken, empty socket. The skin around it was filled with twisted scars. The ugly raised ridges of which gleamed in the light. “Though the cost was quite high.”

Aeron backed himself into the wall as if he could disappear into it as he shook his head. “They would have eliminated your entire line.”

Odin inclined their head in agreement. “Only if they knew I’d survived. They do not and so my line is safe—from death at least.”

Everyone in the room knew that death could sometimes be a mercy—particularly when you were in the clutches of beings as ruthless as the Tsavitee’s masters.

Kira took advantage of Aeron’s unbalanced state to advance her cause. “You were right earlier. I did encounter Elise. She left me a message. ‘Help the changeling.’”

There was only one person she could have meant. Odin.

Aeron’s head dropped against the wall. “Good for you. Why are you telling me this?”

“Much as it pains me to say, I think we might be on the same side.”

And how that fact grated. Kira and the generals had been enemies for so long it was difficult to see them as anything else. Victims of the same masters who’d tried to twist Kira and the forty-three into their monsters.

Now, she was finding that maybe the generals had gone through the same hell. Only, unlike her and the rest, there had been no escape.

“You told me once that I always saved everyone else, but I never came for you.”

Kira remembered because the comment had always bugged her. Until he’d said that, she’d never viewed the generals as beings who might need rescue.

Perhaps that’s why they’d gone to Elise for help.

Aeron’s laugh held an air of despair that made Kira’s heart clench as he looked at the ceiling. “Does this mean you want to save us now? Will you forgive us for those we took from you?”

The air stilled as Kira looked away from him for the first time. “No.”

The answer was a foregone conclusion. Kira couldn’t forget or forgive.

The people they’d killed were never coming back. Kira would always feel hate for what they’d done.

Aeron’s face twisted before his hands came up to cover it.

“But I don’t expect forgiveness for the lives I’ve taken either,” Kira finished.

It was always easier to view the opposite side of any war as monsters. It took away the guilt that accompanied the taking of a life. You didn’t have to care if the soldiers on the other side were evil. You could tell yourself you were doing the right thing.

Kira’s mentor and father figure had always said the only thing that separated two forces was which side of the battle line they stood on.

Kira had forgotten that. Though the generals had made that easy given all they’d done.

Still, swaying the generals away from their masters would deal the Tsavitee a tremendous blow. Kira’s dead would kick her ass if she didn’t take advantage of such an opportunity.

Aeron brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them before lowering his head to rest it on his knees. “Nothing will change as long as they hold our young.”

“And if those young were free?” Kira asked carefully.

Aeron lifted his head. “Then some of us would no longer have a reason to obey.”

“Some?” Not all?

Aeron gave her a twisted smile. “Not everyone resents our masters’ yoke.”

Good enough for Kira.

“Thank you, Aeron. You’ve been very helpful.”

He’d given her a place to start if nothing else. Break the Tsavitee masters’ hold on the generals and they’d create a schism. There would be no one to lead their horde. The chaos that would ensue could give her a real shot of eliminating the masters entirely.

“Time’s up,” Graydon said, just as black spots started eating away at the gray of the prison cells.

Aeron’s gaze pierced Kira’s. “There’s a reason they went after the emperor’s son.” He paused. “Both of them.”

Kira resisted the pull of her body as the cell flickered in and out of her sight. “What does that mean?”

Aeron’s lips lifted. “I think you know.”

She did.

Jin. Her best friend. And likely the emperor’s eldest son. Stolen the same day as Kira and the forty-three. Unlike them, however, he no longer possessed his original body. Instead, his soul had been bound to a combat drone.

If the Tuann ever found out, they would destroy him.

They’d consider him an abomination. They wouldn’t care that her friend was nothing like their stories of the soul bound. Twisted creatures with no empathy or restraint. Monsters who were once people.

Aeron’s insinuation said the masters knew or at least suspected what Jin was. That it was why they’d been after him and Devon all along.

They would come for Jin.

It was only a matter of time before Jin’s secret got out.

The connection thinned further. Aeron’s image wavered.

“One final piece of advice,” he said, recovering his smirk. “Don’t worry about finding Elise. She’ll find you on Ta Sa’Riel. Prepare, Phoenix.”

The last of the connection snapped. The gray walls disappearing to be replaced by black ones.

“Damn it. Tricky, deceitful, fucking generals,” Kira ground out.

Why had she thought it was a good idea to talk to Aeron? What was she thinking? Their mind games made Himoto’s look gentle by comparison.

“I did warn you,” Graydon said.

“Thanks. It really makes my day to have you tell me I told you so.”

“Happy to be of assistance.”

Kira shook off the lingering effects of the astral projection. There was a slight disorientation. As if part of her still thought she was in that cell.

“Did you learn what you were hoping to?” Graydon asked.

“I learned something.”

Kira wasn’t sure if that something was of any use.

“You should be happy. It sounds like your friend will surface soon enough,” Graydon pointed out.

“Yes, I’m thrilled.”

Graydon’s grin was slight even as his glance at the doorway betrayed his restlessness.

“You should go,” Kira said. “I’m sure the emperor is waiting for your report.”

She didn’t bother asking him to keep the conversation they’d had with Aeron secret. For one thing, she knew he wouldn’t. She had to trust that Graydon understood what information could be shared and what would become a noose around her neck.

It was a dangerous line to walk. One Graydon managed to make look as effortless as everything else he did.

Graydon moved away after a faint squeeze of reassurance. “I’ll find you later.”

“I’m counting on it,” Kira said, watching him prowl toward the door, his oshota appearing as if from thin air.

A woman named Amila winked at Kira in solidarity before falling into step with Graydon.

“It was unnecessary to involve him. I told you I would have found a way in,” Odin pouted from behind Kira.

Sometime in the last few minutes Odin’s features had developed a more feminine cast. Her lips slightly plumper. The line of her jaw a little softer.

The change was subtle but unmistakable.

“You also said the chances of getting caught were high,” Kira pointed out.

“Better that than the emperor being privy to all our secrets.”

“Not all.” Kira looked out the view port at the stars. “Besides, we need allies.”

It was becoming increasingly clear to Kira that they needed someone powerful on their side. The attack on the Haldeel empire and those present at the quorum had changed the game. War was coming. Chaos would follow.

They would accomplish nothing except maybe dying if they went at this solo.

“Are you sure you need to leave?” Kira asked Odin.

Her friend hesitated before giving a reluctant nod. “Yggdrasil is the only place where I can run the calculations I need.”

In old Norse mythology, Yggdrasil was a sacred tree that was said to exist in all the worlds, its roots and branches spreading along the fabric of their realities.

Outwardly, Odin’s lair held little in common with the myth, but there was still an essence of truth to the name. It wasn’t a stretch to say the “Allfather”, as Odin was known to some, had a presence throughout the Haldeel and Tuann empires as well as humanity’s Consortium, making the name Yggdrasil rather appropriate.

“I have all the necessary star charts. It won’t be long until I can locate the Tsavitee home worlds,” Odin assured her.

“I’ve heard that before.”

“This time I’m right.” There was a certainty in Odin’s expression that was rare. A confidence unmasked by Odin’s mischievous teasing and sly smile.

Kira offered her hand to shake. “Alright. I’ll wait to hear word.”

“What will you be doing until then?”

Kira tilted her head at the pattern they’d used to appear in Aeron’s cell. “You heard him. Elise will come looking for me. It’s best if I don’t make myself too hard to find.”

Which meant a return to Ta Sa’Riel and House Roake, her father’s House, and all the problems she’d left behind when her niece decided to abscond with her ship.

The cloak rustled around Odin’s legs as the Sye moved toward the door, drawing the cloak over her head as she did so.

Kira didn’t ask how Odin planned to get off the ship. The Sye had her own methods, and she wasn’t about to share them with Kira.

“Not going to say goodbye to him?” Kira asked.

Odin was there for Jin when he needed her the most. The two shared a connection Kira didn’t pretend to understand.

She didn’t think Jin would take the Sye’s absence in stride. Especially if Odin left without a word.

“He’ll get over it. It’s better this way.”

Kira’s smile held a note of self-deprecation. How many times had Kira or Jin said something similar?

Somehow, it felt fitting to have those words turned back around on them in this situation.

Kira didn’t stop Odin as the Sye departed, leaving behind an echoing silence that felt an awful lot like the feeling before battle. A quiet stillness you knew couldn’t last before the terror of war.

Soon. One way or another, things were coming to a head.

“I wish you luck, my friend,” Kira whispered softly.