by Ailx Nichols
Knowing that Unie was in there now certainly explained his elation, but it didn’t explain his… other reactions. The way his senses responded to this woman’s scent, which was very different from Unie’s. The way his muscles, his skin, even his bones loved the feel of her delicate frame pressed to his chest, her soft breasts against its hard planes. The way his body surrounded her as if wanting to swaddle her within his arms and never let go.
“My darling,” he whispered against her forehead before pressing his lips to it.
She pulled away and gazed up at him. “Promise me you won’t go after Ultek, that you’ll let go.”
“I can’t promise it… but I’ll try.”
“Then promise you’ll try hard! For me.”
“I promise.”
“Thank you.” She stroked his arm. “I must leave you now.”
His eyes widened. “What? No, wait!”
He wasn’t ready to say goodbye. So not ready! Desperate, he racked his brain for a reason she shouldn’t leave yet, until he recalled there was something else Unie had wanted to tell him.
“What about the other thing you mentioned?” He grabbed her shoulders. “You said there were two things.”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow, if Haysi doesn’t mind that I use her body again so soon.”
“Why not now?”
“I’ve already stayed too long, my love. It might affect her mental health if I overstay my welcome.”
He clung to her, his mind increasingly frantic, his misery nearly making him say things he knew he’d regret. That he didn’t care about Haysi’s mental health. That all he cared about was Unie, the chance to be with her a little longer, to talk to her, to hold her…
“She says yes, Iyatt!”
Unie’s smile held so much joy he couldn’t help smiling in return.
“I’ll come back tomorrow,” she said. “We’ll talk again.”
The candles in the room flared, and the woman he held by her shoulders swayed, her eyes rolling back in her head.
He drew her to him and held her in his arms for the longest moment. Unie was gone, he knew that. It was Haysi he was holding now. Haysimina Lommen alone, body and soul. And yet, he couldn’t make himself let go of her.
Haysi didn’t seem in a rush to leave his embrace, either. No longer faint, she now stood firmly on her feet. Her arms, which a moment ago had hung limply by her sides, wrapped around his waist. She rested her cheek on his chest, leaning on him, seeking comfort. Giving comfort.
He didn’t know how long they’d stayed like that.
Finally, Haysi slid her hands to his chest and pushed gently, drawing away. Waking up from his enchanted state, he released her.
When his clouded gaze refocused, he looked her straight in the eye. “Were you there with us the whole time? Were you listening in?”
She nodded.
“Please don’t do that tomorrow.”
She wrinkled her face. “I’m not sure I can just… step out from my own body. Even if I wanted to.”
“Will you try?”
She hunched her shoulders. “Yes.”
He thanked her and bolted downstairs and outside, desperate for air, for space, for stars above his head.
As he strode through the sleepy outskirts of Orogate and along the main road to his home, he replayed the evening in his head, repeatedly.
The woman he’d talked to had been Unie. There could be no doubt about it. The things she knew, the thing she’d asked of him, the words she’d used—even the most gifted con artist in the world couldn’t get all that so perfectly right. It was Unie’s soul… in Haysi’s body.
What a confusing woman, that one! A money-worshiping debauchee who’d helped Unie—and him—in such a big way without asking for an advance payment. All she’d asked for was to be introduced to Chief Ultek, but even when Iyatt refused, she let him talk with Unie anyway. Maybe she hoped he’d do as she’d asked afterward out of gratitude.
A twinge of guilt shot through Iyatt’s chest.
He’d made up his mind to ask something of Unie that was wrong, no matter how he sliced it. Given his fiancée’s integrity, he fully expected her to say no. But that wouldn’t make him less of a monster for asking.
The request was that immoral.
He knew he shouldn’t voice it tomorrow.
He knew he would anyway.
Five
Determination in her step, Etana pushed the door to the ERIGAT Archives open and headed straight to the area for Middle Ra Era studies.
The great size of the League of Realms Space Station made it possible for its Archives to be spacious enough to cover all the recorded history from the Early Ra Era to Human Infusion to Ra-Human Expansion to the Empire War and the establishment of LOR.
Most of the recordings were copies of vellums kept on Ramoh and a few other planet-colonies. Some were originals kept in protective cases.
Here in the main hall, tomes, boxes and binders filled row after row of tall shelves that ran across the carpeted floor on two levels. Level one covered the Ra history before the Human Infusion. Level two hosted more recent recordings starting from almost two thousand years ago when the first successful scout ship returned to Xereill with a small group of human women from planet Terra in Via Lactea.
Passing through one of the shelf-lined aisles, her steps muffled by the carpet underfoot, Etana spied two familiar faces. The curator of the Archives, Dann Umundo was pointing out a binder and explaining something in a hushed voice to Zoly, Etana’s closest friend on LORSS. Zoly had recently landed a part-time job at the Archives.
Etana touched her forehead and bowed. If Dann hadn’t been around, she and Zoly would’ve hugged instead, but his presence called for a more formal greeting.
“Good morning,” Etana said as she came closer.
Dann brow-and-bowed. “Good luck with your research today!”
“I’ll stop by later,” Zoly said to Etana before retreating.
Zoly was what they called a late-life cyborg. Born an organic, she’d had herself augmented into a bionic by choice, as soon as she’d saved enough to pay for the enhancements.
She hadn’t gone through multiple surgeries for the joy of flying nor hoping for a longer and healthier life. Her goal was to become a LOR enforcer. Unfortunately, she hadn’t made it past preselection last year. Now she was forced to wait until she could apply again.
Through no fault of her own, Zoly was the daughter of Cemaluria Cronk, the underhanded head of ERIGAT, an institute on LORSS. Zoly suspected that her mother had had something to do with Colonel Yaggar’s turning her down. Not because the colonel disliked Cemaluria—which nearly everyone did—but because he didn’t trust her.
Now that Areg had become an enforcer, Etana had tried to find out if Zoly’s theory was sound. Areg had valiantly asked his boss but he’d gotten the same official boilerplate. Zoly, Colonel Yaggar had told him, had been a strong candidate, but given the highly skilled and large number of applicants, she simply hadn’t made the cut.
Regardless, Zoly wasn’t giving up on her dream just yet. A bartender by night and a part-time clerk by day, she spent whatever free time she had training and studying to make it nearly impossible for Colonel Yaggar to reject her again.
Taking the binder from Dann’s hands, Zoly headed toward the staircase to level two. Etana made two left turns and reached her destination. She pulled the volume she’d started on yesterday from a shelf, sat down at a small table between two rows, and turned on the power candle.
Please, let this one be the One!
The Middle Ra section housed over five thousand written texts and maps in Old Raish. Some had been translated into modern Raish. Naturally, Etana had gone through those sources first.
When she was done, she had no choice but to delve into the rest—a vast collection of duplicates and some original vellums in Old Raish.
Dann had taught her how to handle original documents. He’d also arranged for an Old Raish expert to giv
e Etana a crash course and provide her with the best reference books ever compiled.
As mentors went, Dann and Vetil—Etana’s immediate boss—were the best. People who worked for Zoly’s mother, Dame Cronk, kept telling Etana to never, ever transfer to ERIGAT if she could help it. Having heard countless tales of gratuitous meanness about Dame Cronk and a few other LOR officials, Etana knew how lucky she was. Which put even more pressure on her and made her lack of headway particularly vexing.
“You’ve been here only a few months,” Zoly and Areg often reminded her. “Keep digging!”
It had been four months now, and still nothing.
Etana wished there were more hours in a day so she could “dig” more. Every day, Aheya-days included, she worked in the Middle Ra section, looking for information about her gift.
Ideally, she dreamed of finding a step-by-step tutorial. But, given her growing state of despair, she’d be overjoyed about finding anything that was relevant. A witness account, a tale, a legend like the one she’d found for Marye and Geru, a passing reference… Something. Anything!
But so far, the vellums had revealed nothing at all. Not a single story about time benders, not the briefest mention of a glitch in time. As she worked her way through the records, Etana indexed and summarized every Old Raish source she studied, making a detailed reference card for it.
Dann appreciated her initiative.
Etana found comfort in it. At least, she was doing something useful for the League of Realms. Because she was beginning to think she’d lost the Ra spark from her blood. Whether she’d been a time bender or just a mesmerizer, whatever gift she’d possessed, was gone now.
Decency demanded that she share her suspicions with Her Grace, Lady Olinnie Tann-Lo. The superintendent of the League of Realms had green-lighted her and Areg’s rescue and given them new identities and jobs at LORSS, believing that Etana was special. She was wrong.
A few days ago, Etana had requested an audience with Her Grace, and this morning she received a note that Lady Tann-Lo would see her in the afternoon.
At a quarter to four, Etana put her binder back on the shelf and headed to the deck on level three. When the superintendent’s assistant ushered her in, Etana jumped straight to the heart of the matter, determined not to waste more of Lady Tann-Lo’s precious time than she’d done already.
“Your Grace,” she said, bowing deeply. “When you approved Areg’s exfiltration, I promised you I’d find a way to control my gift or die trying.”
“I remember that.” Lady Tann-Lo’s beautiful face expanded into a smile.
“It is my duty to report that I haven’t made much progress yet, despite my best efforts.”
“I know from Vetil you’ve been working very hard,” Lady Tann-Lo said.
“I’ll keep on trying, but whatever purpose you had for my gift, please do look for alternatives.”
Lady Tann-Lo stared at her, saying nothing.
“Your Grace, it looks like I’m going to let you down—you, the person I owe so much! And it’s breaking my heart.” Etana’s voice cracked, and she took a long breath before adding, “But it would be even worse if I hide from you that… I believe I’ve lost my gift.”
“Rich-bloods don’t lose their abilities just like that for no reason,” Lady Tann-Lo said.
“What if it wasn’t an ability, not in the usual sense?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve come to believe that, in my case, it was a single surge, a one-off,” Etana said. “I was meant to do it to save Areg, because Divine Aheya couldn’t let a man like that die so unjustly, in such horrible circumstances—”
Lady Tann-Lo touched her arm. “What are you saying, Etana?”
“I’m saying I was given my gift for a purpose, and once that purpose was accomplished, it was taken away.”
“Just because you haven’t been able to find any information about it doesn’t mean your gift is gone.” Lady Tann-Lo pointed to the sofa by the wall. “Come. Have a seat.”
Etana followed her to the sofa.
“Listen to me carefully,” Lady Tann-Lo said, “One of my gifts—a gift I abhor—is extremely powerful. Last year, shortly before I was confirmed as superintendent, I’d been forced to use it, to save my life.”
Etana’s eyes widened.
Lady Tann-Lo continued, “Every use of a transformative gift like that is a heavy, energy-intensive effort. I’ve wielded it only three times in my entire life, and after each act, my capacity for it would be drained for weeks and weeks. If I hadn’t known better, if I hadn’t researched it, I’d have thought I’d lost it.”
“You’re trying to give me hope.”
“I’m trying to explain what I think is going on with you. Time bending is arguably the biggest gift that exists.” She held her palms out. “Just think of what you did in Iltaqa Town Hall Square!”
“I think about it all the time.”
“Be patient, Etana. My personal experience suggests that the more powerful the gift the longer its period of latency.”
“I pray to Aheya you’re right, but…” Etana furrowed her brow, looking for the right words.
“But?”
Etana rubbed at her brow. “All my life for as long as I remember myself, I had what you’d call an extra sense, a special connection with beings and things.” She searched Lady Tann-Lo’s face.
“Please, continue.”
“I’d have these strange dreams… I’d hear things other Ra-human couldn’t hear. I’d feel more, had a better sense of smell…” Etana looked down at her hands. “It was my normal, a part of my life.”
“And now?”
“All that is gone.” Etana looked up into Lady Tann-Lo’s eyes. “Ever since I blacked out that day in Town Hall Square, I haven’t experienced that connectedness again. Not once.”
“It doesn’t prove your ability is gone forever.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Etana stood. “Your Grace, please be assured that I won’t give up until there’s no record left in the Archives that I haven’t read, no meditation or trick I haven’t tried in my mind, and no life-force in my body to get up in the morning. I just wanted you to know where you stand with me.”
“Thank you.” Lady Tann-Lo rose to her feet. “I appreciate it.”
Etana bowed and headed for the door.
As she was pulling it shut, the superintendent cried out after her, “Don’t forget what I said about energy-intensive gifts!”
“I won’t,” Etana said.
How could I?
Right now, that piece of information was all she had to go on.
Six
When the candles in Haysi’s room began to flicker, Iyatt held his breath, watching her eyes roll back momentarily, and then her expression change.
Unie Thraton, his departed love, gazed at him through the belly dancer’s blue eyes. “Iyatt.”
In one long stride he was next to her, holding her.
She drew back, a frown creasing her forehead. “I think that Haysi… She’s gone! She’s given us full privacy.”
“Great,” he muttered, feeling like a complete jerk.
Which I am.
There was still time to back out of his decision, and not ask Unie to do something so despicable. Something he was certain she wouldn’t do, anyway. But not asking her meant forgoing the chance—no matter how tiny—to have her back in his life.
“Remember that night on Norbal, when we first kissed?” He cupped her cheek with one hand, not quite sure why he was bringing it up.
Their first kiss had been as brief as it was chaste, his lips brushing against hers softly, before he drew back. The kisses they’d exchanged over the next decade grew longer and more passionate, but he’d always been careful not to let them get too passionate. Not once had he pushed his tongue into Unie’s mouth or unbuttoned her shirt to slip a hand inside.
Iyatt hadn’t been a virgin when he met Unie. He knew what happened when he kissed and caressed a woman a littl
e too ardently. He gave in to his baser needs. If the woman he was kissing let him, he took her. All of her.
But Unie had been chaste.
She’d been deeply religious.
And she’d never been big on kissing and caressing.
Sometimes Iyatt reflected on the unflagging restraint he’d displayed toward Unie for so long. It puzzled him how he’d managed it. But what puzzled him even more was why it had never felt like a feat, like a major achievement, or something to be proud of. Maybe because respecting her boundaries hadn’t been all that hard.
The Goddess knew he loved Unie… but he’d never lusted after her.
“It was a magical night.” Unie said dreamily, breaking him from his thoughts. “We missed the curfew at our respective dormitories, and we ended up sleeping under the stars. Well, talking more than sleeping.”
He bracketed her face with both his hands. Now. Say it now.
But it was Unie who spoke again. “One of the few regrets I have is that I didn’t spend more time with you, having nightlong conversations like that.”
He searched her face. “We still can, if you stay.”
“There’s no time,” she said. “I can’t stay long, you know that. It might harm Haysi—”
“Stay for good,” he cut in. “That’s what I meant. Take over Haysi’s body.”
There, he’d said it.
Unie’s jaw dropped, surprise warring with horror in her eyes.
This was hopeless, but he carried on, “She doesn’t respect her body, anyway. She flaunts it, half-naked, in front of strangers—”
“Iyatt, my darling, stop—”
But he was too far gone. “You sacrificed your body to save Etana and Areg. You’d saved so many others before them. It isn’t fair that Haysi should live and you should die.”
“How can you ask me to do such a thing?” She shuffled backward. “You know it isn’t up to us, Iyatt. We don’t have the full picture.”
“You know what? I don’t care about the full picture. All I care about is having you back.”
A deep crease formed between her eyebrows. “You can’t be serious.”
