From Ruins

by M. C. A. Hogarth

  The door opened on a Tam-illee todfox in... livery? No, she thought. That was a uniform, but obviously based on the Galare livery, in blue and silver and gray. He was an older man, his russet hair going silver at the temples and lines framing his caramel-colored eyes, and he emanated an aura of patient authority she found reassuring. Was he one of the Queen's Tams? But there was no inverted horseshoe on the breast of his tunic. Instead, there was an emblem she hadn't yet seen, and couldn't easily from this distance. Sediryl turned in her chair to face him. "May I help you?"

  "My lady," he said in truly flawless Eldritch, shaded in silvers and politely neutral grays. "I am here to escort you to your vessel."

  Her vessel? Already? Saying that out loud would not project the mature confidence she thought appropriate to a man she felt needed to see it. "I see. Thank you....?"

  "Captain Thonder FirstShield. If I've interrupted, my lady...."

  "No," Sediryl said, rising. "I would very much like to have a tour of the Queen's ship."

  She followed him into the corridor and walked alongside him, trying to assess him without staring. Had the loss of Tam-ley affected him? Not all Tam-illee hailed from their homeworld. She couldn't tell from his demeanor, and offering sympathies felt presumptuous. Instead she said, "I'm surprised at your expeditious arrival. When the Queen said she'd arranged a platform for my errand, I assumed I'd be waiting for some time for the arrangements."

  "We were doing our shake-down at Starbase Alpha, my lady." And what a strange sentence that was in Eldritch. ‘Shake-down' was literal, and she had to translate it into Universal and back to make sense of it. "It was a short hop when we got word yesterday, and Fleet Central was good about clearing us for a berth as soon as we arrived in-system."

  Every word made it clearer what Liolesa's little ‘side project' had been. Sediryl wondered if Thonder FirstShield had been recruited out of the Queen's Tams, or if he was another of Lesandurel's extended Tam-ileyan family. By the time they reached the docks and FirstShield stopped alongside one of the windows, Sediryl was not at all surprised by the sight awaiting her.

  "Was she purpose-built?" she asked.

  "No, my lady," FirstShield said. "Fleet retires ships regularly, and the Queen asked if she might purchase some of those older vessels to form the core of her new navy. They won't be as good as the new ones we'll build ourselves, but we needed the ships to develop the other processes involved in a military: training, maintenance, administration."

  "She's beautiful," Sediryl said, because it was true. The Alliance built lovely vessels, their warships inclusive, but all their ships were silver and chrome and dark gray. The programmable paint of the surface of this ship was white and dark blue, with muted gold here and there, gleaming in the light of Selnor's distant primary.

  "The R.E.N. Jerisa Galare," FirstShield said. "The first we received. We call her the Queen of Queens."

  "I'd love to see her."

  "This way, my lady."

  "We have a navy," Jahir said, bemused.

  "Don't tell me you're surprised." Lisinthir was slouched on Sediryl's sofa, one arm over the back and the free hand holding a snifter. The sideboard had an alcohol service that even Ontine would have been hard-pressed to match.

  Sediryl wasn't drinking. Just staring at the two of them was intoxication enough, and she was trying to keep clear-headed. They weren't even doing anything inappropriate by Pelted standards: Jahir was sitting on the ottoman in front of Lisinthir, sharing it with one of Lisinthir's booted feet. It was just the way they interacted that was like eating chocolates: their ease, the way they looked at one another.

  Vasiht'h's presence should have mediated this and didn't, because the way he and Jahir interacted was just as wonderful.

  "No," Jahir said after a moment. "I don't think it's the last thing that would surprise me about our Queen's arsenal of projects. But it's close."

  Lisinthir snorted. "We're an empire now, and it's been amply demonstrated that the Pelted might not have the resources to extend their protective umbrella over us. What else, then, but a navy?"

  "Built out of Tam-illee," Vasiht'h said. "That's the part that I wasn't expecting. I knew there were a few Tam-illee working for you all, but not that there were enough of them to crew one ship, much less ten."

  "Fleet employs a sizable percentage of the Alliance's population." Lisinthir set his drink on the side-table and leaned back again. "No surprise that Lesandurel's extended family might have a good number in it that were also willing to join."

  "So are we leaving, then?" Jahir asked her.

  "Yes."

  "We're not waiting for Liolesa to get here?" Vasiht'h asked. "Won't that be a problem? You're representing the Eldritch, aren't you?"

  "I am," Sediryl said. "But I discussed it with her and she agrees that I shouldn't wait." She looked at Vasiht'h. "They're still there, arii. Every day we delay is a day they might end up sold somewhere."

  Vasiht'h grimaced, looked away. "Right. Good point."

  "And you?" Jahir asked, twisting to look back at Lisinthir. "Will you also come?"

  "If the Emperor and Queen need you...," Sediryl began.

  "They aren't going anywhere," Lisinthir said. "And killing pirates sounds like a fine chaser to this war. No, I'll come, cousin." He smiled. "Our last errand together before we go our separate ways."

  "Your first errand together, you mean," Vasiht'h said.

  "That also."

  Jahir said, "But those separate ways won't be separate forever."

  "Or often, even, I judge. And yet." Lisinthir met Sediryl's eyes, lifted a brow. "We have our lives to arrange, do we not? What say you, my lady? Are you now the official heir?"

  Sediryl flushed. "Almost."

  "How can you almost be the heir to a nation?" Vasiht'h asked.

  "I told Liolesa I'd tell her my answer after I got back." Sediryl folded her hands in her lap to keep from fidgeting. "I have to do this first."

  "Of course you do," Lisinthir said. "We would think less of you if you didn't feel so."

  "What I want to know," Vasiht'h said, "is what you're going to do with those Faulfenza."

  Sediryl looked at him, startled. "I... beg your pardon?"

  "One of them left," Vasiht'h said. "Paudii, the captain of the lost ship. But four of them stayed behind. Including-"

  "Qora," Sediryl guessed, touching her hand to her brow.

  "He insists you still haven't mastered Faulfenzair dance."

  "No alien is going to master Faulfenzair dance!" Sediryl exclaimed, ignoring the intrigued looks both Eldritch males were giving her. "He really stayed?"

  Vasiht'h nodded. "I've been keeping track of all the people we were involved with, you know? It gave me something to do." He paused, looking down while he composed himself. Sediryl's heart tensed in her chest. Jahir had told her why Vasiht'h wanted to come. "Anyway, four of those Faulfenza stayed. Most of the slaves Lisinthir liberated from Apex-East are gone, too. One of them went on to Terra... she was one of the crew of the Eldritch ship that got captured by the Chatcaava, the one with the woman Lisinthir rescued?"

  "Bethsaida," Sediryl said, surprised.

  "Yes. Anyway, the only people left are Qora's friends, and four of the former slaves."

  "Andrea, Emlyn, Dominika, and Simone," Lisinthir murmured.

  Vasiht'h said, "Yes. Simone's in the Medplex, and doing well. Andrea feels some attachment to the Emperor. Is he...?"

  "He knows she's here," Lisinthir said, quiet. "And yes, I believe she is waiting to see what will happen with the treaty. Like the others. They want to know."

  "A great many people are waiting on the treaty." Jahir rested a hand on Lisinthir's ankle, white hand against dark leather. "Perhaps by the time we return, there will be a resolution."

  "I'm a little sad we're missing it," Vasiht'h admitted. "How often do you see the leaders of three nations in one place at one time?"

  "And all the Chatcaavan refugees," Sediryl said. "They're coming too."
>
  "This won't take long," Lisinthir said. "We may be back in time to participate. Or if not..." He looked away, eyes distant. "There is a thing I must tell you both, cousins. Yes, and you also, Vasiht'h, as your love for Jahir makes this something you should also be privy to."

  "Oh, I don't like things that start like that," Vasiht'h said with a sigh. "What's gone wrong this time?"

  "Not so much wrong as... unexpected." Lisinthir's fingers tapped on the arm of the couch lightly. "And there is no good way to approach it save directly. The Chatcaava do not have the compunctions the Alliance does about studying our biology."

  "Oh no," Vasiht'h said.

  "And they have discovered that our enhancements are artificial," Lisinthir finished. "We were not created by genetic engineering, but by nanotechnology."

  Sediryl was still breathing, because she could hear herself inhaling, exhaling. Feel her ribs flex. But she felt like someone had struck her: confused because the world wasn't making the sense she expected. "I... don't even know what that means."

  "No one does yet," Lisinthir said. "This one discovery begs a great many questions without answers, yet."

  "Nanotech!" Vasiht'h exclaimed. "But the Alliance abandoned nanotech as dangerous! It's less predictable than genetic manipulation..." He stopped, digging his paws into the carpet. "Oh. So that explains so many of your problems."

  "The evidence is suggestive, yes."

  Vasiht'h nudged Jahir's calf. "You're the one with the most medical training. What do you think?"

  Jahir had been staring at nothing, much the way Sediryl thought she had been. "I think," he said at last, "that without more data...."

  That silence felt fragile and full of pain, and in it Sediryl found a pattern. "Isn't it strange," she said, "that so many of us are artificial? The Pelted made themselves with genetic engineering. The Eldritch, with machines. And the Chatcaava, with the Change. We all decided to continue nature's work with the tools we had."

  Both her cousins were looking at her now.

  "That's beautiful," Vasiht'h said. "A lot better than thinking of it as interference. Or hubris."

  "Maybe it is both those things, too," Sediryl said. "But we make mistakes when we reach for better futures. The only way to avoid them is to stop trying to grow."

  "And perhaps God and Goddess are in those processes," Jahir said. "Perhaps they are reflected in every evolution that results in a spirit that can look toward Them, and love."

  This silence was better. Sediryl could breathe through it. So could everyone else, because Vasiht'h shifted his wings, refolding them against his back. "So, when are we leaving?"

  "As soon as we pack," Sediryl said. "And I talk to ‘my' Faulfenza."

  "Oh good," Vasiht'h said. "I wasn't looking forward to Qora showing up on my doorstep with some new suggestion that I couldn't say no to." He grinned, rueful. "Good luck with that."

  Going to Qora felt like ceding ground Sediryl needed to keep, so instead she sent for him, and the moment she did she wondered who she was, asking him to come like she had the right to. But then, she'd asked, she hadn't commanded... so that was something? She was still pacing, working through that, when the door chimed. "Come in."

  The Faulfenzair-her Faulfenzair?-padded in, his long white and red tail curling behind him. "Princess."

  "I hadn't forgotten you," she said.

  "I know."

  "I just expected you to go home!" she finished. "You and all the other Faulfenza!"

  "Mmmm," Qora said. "Well, I didn't." Exasperated, she stopped, hands on her hips. He grinned at her, all long muzzle and white teeth. "You expected differently?"

  "Yes!"

  "That is exactly why I have not left yet." The Faulfenzair laughed this time at her expression. "So when do we leave, Princess?"

  She eyed him. "Did Vasiht'h tell you where we were going?"

  "Back to free the slaves, yes."

  "I..." She choked on the word. "Daize's gone. And any of the other Faulfenza you lost. They're not going to be there."

  "No," Qora agreed. "But we were there, for a time. Those people were our companions in captivity. It is right that we should free them."

  "And after that...?"

  "We'll see," he said, much as she expected.

  She folded her arms. "I'm not going to be able to shake you loose, am I."

  He gave another of his chuffing laughs. "We're such poor company."

  "It's not that-"

  "Yes, yes it is," he said, amused. "I am a Seer. Seers are never comfortable company. If we are, we're doing something wrong."

  Sediryl wanted to find that less funny, but she ended up laughing anyway. "All right. We're leaving as soon as everyone reports to the ship. We're on the Jerisa, just ask for it."

  "We attend you, Princess." The Faulfenzair's ears rose and he grinned again. "Whether you want it or not."

  "Go on," she said, waving him toward the door. "Or we'll leave you behind!"

  "Bad form," Qora said as he walked out. "You should never make threats you don't plan to enact. And don't think I've forgotten about your practice. You have the vocabulary of a small infant. We need to work on that."

  "All right," Sediryl said, because fighting with him was useless. But she found she was still smiling after the door closed.

  "You leave us so soon," the Emperor murmured, running his dark fingers through Lisinthir's hair. "I had thought us done with partings."

  "A short errand," Lisinthir promised. He had his head on the pillow alongside the male's, and the Queen's head was resting on his hip. She was licking her mouth, an act that should have been less distracting given how recently she'd exhausted him with it. And yet, he found himself entirely at her disposal. "You will find it a worthy one, I trust. My cousin the heir wishes to revisit the pirate lair and make off with its captives."

  The Emperor sat up on an elbow, frowning. "You and how many ships? Do we know how many pirates remain there? I do not intend losing you, having re-acquired you at last."

  "We have at least one," Lisinthir said. "And whatever the Alliance wishes to send to the cause."

  The Emperor snorted. "The Alliance has no desire to uncover its soft underbelly after the battle here." He finished winding a strand of Lisinthir's hair around his finger and tugged gently. "I will provide your escort. Since I will not be able to attend in order to personally ensure your safety."

  "Such solicitude," Lisinthir said, smiling. "Almost I think you care about me, Exalted."

  "Bite him, master," the Queen said sleepily. Lisinthir laughed.

  The Emperor did too, reaching down to run a finger along her nose. "Bite him, is it."

  "For his insolence." She smiled at them both, eyes half-lidded. "He asks for discipline."

  "Try it and I'll bite back," Lisinthir purred.

  "You are far better positioned to bite him in a way that will command his attention," the Emperor said, much to the Queen's amusement.

  That amusement gentled Lisinthir's concern. "You do not object to my going."

  "I, my lord?" The Queen pulled herself up, every movement languid. Her wings-those glorious wings!-stretched behind her. Her gaze was somber. "No. I saw them. So many suffering people..." She shivered. "No, my lord. If your errand takes you to their succor, then I wish only that you go safely, and return soon."

  Lisinthir rested a hand on her neck, pulled her down so that he could lick the corner of her mouth. She parted it for him, and he had the taste of himself from her, and the warmth of her breath, and the depth of her love. "I promise I will return as soon as I may."

  "And then?" the Emperor said. "I weary of these absences of yours, Ambassador." He nipped Lisinthir's shoulder, just a pluck of skin with his nearest teeth. "What then?"

  "Then, I return to my homeworld, to discharge whatever duty I have to my Queen. After that...."

  "After that," the Emperor said. "You return home to us." He set a finger on Lisinthir's chin. "And we formalize this relationship."

  The
breath he'd been about to draw stopped up in his throat. Lisinthir grew still beneath that touch, looking up at the male upon whose whim he'd once lived, and upon whose love he now throve. "I... I beg your pardon, Exalted...?"

  The Emperor brushed his nose against Lisinthir's jaw. "Not Exalted now, Lisinthir Nase Galare. Kauvauc. Because this is an intimacy we discuss."

  "An intimacy that has political ramifications!"

  "Why yes," the Emperor said, tapping his cheek. At Lisinthir's side, the Queen ducked her head, hiding her mirth. "So it does."

  "We spoke of it," the Queen said softly. "My master and I. And we would have you as part of our family. There can only be one Emperor, but he might have more than one consort. Unless that idea displeases you?"

  "A consort," Lisinthir said, staggered. "You aren't making a jest. You would wed me?"

  "Chatcaava do not wed," the Queen said.

  "Yet," the Emperor added, amused. "Who knows how your alien customs will infect us."

  "But we do claim mates," the Queen finished. "Or did, in those before times." She glanced at the Emperor as if seeking strength, and said, "I would like this. I would have your children, if you would consent. We would raise them together, the three of us."

  "My what?" Lisinthir breathed, half sitting up.

  "I am whole in more ways than one." The Queen spread her hands. "I can bear young again, and I would like to. The Emperor's, of course. And yours. You know that we can catch off of aliens. It is part of our ability to Change. We can incorporate genetic information from any source. We could love, and if I chose, I could ensure a child of that union."

  Would... would that even work, he wondered wildly? If the Eldritch were partially a construct, the method of which they didn't understand? And yet, to have... a family... a family that continued after him, that could inherit a name, if name he chose-

  "Would these children be Imthereli or Uenuevin?" he asked. And began laughing, because he could ask the question. But as he considered the implications, he sobered and rested back again on the bed to look up at them both. "If you name me a formal consort, it may create trouble. When... I outlive you."