by Viola Grace
She walked into the teashop and looked at the selection, biting her lip when she was spoiled for choice.
A human woman smiled at her. “Can I help you?”
Remi nodded. “It is my first time here, so what would you recommend?”
“I will pick a few things. Bad day?”
She blinked. “Good and bad, but it just started.”
“Right. Have a seat and leave it to me.” The woman grinned.
Remi glanced over her shoulder and located a seat with a chair against the wall and a delicate table. She settled herself, and the server brought out three pastries and a cup of tea.
“On the house. Nobody deserves a bad day.”
Remi inclined her head. “Thank you. Thank the proprietor, too.”
The woman grinned. “You can see him peeping around the corner?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I hear a lot of gossip, and I don’t remember seeing you before. I would have noticed. I am guessing that you are one of the hybrids that the Rrassic have been whispering about.”
Remi arranged the pastries in the order she wanted to eat them. “Interesting guess.”
“Well, it is nice to know that the humans mating with the Rrassic might eventually come up with something like you. What was your mother’s species?”
The woman went from conspiratorial to curious.
Remi let her camouflage fade, and she looked at the woman. “Nothing that you have ever heard of.”
The server gasped and nodded, smiling as she returned to serving the other customers.
The Rrassic knew what she was the moment that her colouration was restored. They warily inclined their heads toward her. She ignored them and bit into the first pastry.
It just showed her that she had been too wrapped up in enjoying her time with Kromir. For a few hours, she had forgotten what she was.
She was midway into the second pastry when a familiar face arrived, and Remi sighed and sat back. She inclined her head to her friend and smiled. “Alia. It is good to see you home.”
Alia came up to her and gave her a hug with her third eye wide open. She was a woman now, but she looked so young to Remi’s eyes.
“That is just because you are an old, bitchy cow.” Alia smiled as they parted.
Remi laughed, and her friend pulled up a chair. The server arrived and stared at Alia. “What can I get for you?”
“A Vedder special and Sarah’s pastry, please, Dot.” Alia smiled brightly at the woman.
“Have you been in before?”
Alia shook her head. “No, but a friend has familiarized me with your menu. My compliments to Sommin.”
Dot was flustered, but she went to get the pastries.
Remi blinked. “Don’t tell me. This is that pastry shop.”
“Yeah. The one where my mom meeting my dad became inevitable.”
Remi nodded and returned to her snack. “I am very glad you made it. What happened?”
“Tobin balked. It was only for a second, but it warped the pathway. I knew they would find you, so I sent my dad the message.”
“Right. I am glad everyone made it.”
“It was weird to leave everything in the warehouse, but the next group needs a clean slate, so to speak.”
Remi remembered packing. It had only been three Imrahl days ago, but it felt a lifetime ago.
“So, did we get the positive assessment?” Alia smiled as Dot brought her order in.
“I am sure your father told you, but yes, we did.”
“Before you slept with him?”
Remi coughed. “Yes.”
“He didn’t know about your voice, did he?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Remi felt her face heat. “You know I don’t like using it.”
“It is a tremendous tactical advantage. You can get orders to our kind within a kilometre of your location. They come when you call and go where you tell them.”
“It is a blunt-force object that makes them do what I say.”
“It is a tool to move forces. To keep them safe.”
Remi teared up. “I have really missed you.”
“Don’t say that too loudly. My parents are following with your parents and your new mate. Are you going to keep him?” There was speculation in Alia’s voice.
“If you go near him, I will swat you.”
Alia chuckled. “So, you are keeping him.”
“If I can. None of us knows the rules on that yet.”
She was onto her third pastry when Sarah and Lekorh walked in, leading the others.
The teashop emptied of its regulars in under a minute.
Alia smiled. “Keep your head up, cousin. It will be fine.”
Remi watched as her elders took up a perimeter watch and Kromir came toward her. Alia passed him, and she checked him out from head to toe as she went. Her expression was one of approval. If Remi didn’t want him, she might take him for a spin.
Remi was smiling as she looked at Kromir, and when she saw his expression, the smile faded.
He sat next to her. “You should not have run.”
“I know. I needed time to think.”
“You did not mention you were a siren. Did you ever use your voice on me?”
She gasped, and before she knew it, she hit him across the face with her fist. His head snapped to the side, and she smelled blood.
“I am taking that as a negative.”
“I would never use the voice for that. Did you come out of any moment feeling dazed or as if you didn’t belong there?”
He blinked and smiled, showing the blood on his teeth. “Once or twice.”
“Then, it wasn’t me, jackass. I summon and they come. They know they are called, and they come anyway.”
Kromir nodded. “I see. What is your distance?”
“Depending on the environment, a kilometre. I had to call in many of my brothers, sisters, and cousins over the years.”
“Do any of your siblings share the talent?”
“I believe two of my sisters have it. You would have to ask my parents.”
Kromir glanced over at Arix and Bree. “I will do it later.”
She chuckled. “It would have developed after I left, so I can only go by what I saw when they were adolescents.”
“I see. This is excellent news. I am now the only examiner in five decades and a dozen worlds to meet a siren.”
She smiled slightly. “I prefer alternatively vocal.”
Her mother and Sarah snorted. She had confirmed that they were close enough to listen.
He frowned.
She grinned. “Human joke about deliberate classification.”
“Ah. We are going to have to speak to the council.”
Remi nodded. “I know.”
“No. Today. I am filing the request for a portal as soon as I am able.”
Lekorh raised his voice. “Request is filed. Waiting for the window.”
Bree looked around. “What is happening?”
Arix squeezed his mate’s hand. “Remi is going to work.”
Bree exhaled slowly. “Right. Of course.”
Remi smiled encouragingly at her mother. This was the hard part. Letting go.
She finished her pastry and smiled before sipping her tea. “Okay, so, my last day on Imrahl. I am glad I ate dessert first.”
Sarah got up and walked into the back, having a discussion with the baker.
She came back and winked at those who remained. “We are getting some takeout. Where is a good place to hash this out?”
Lekorh looked up. “Departure in two hours.”
Sarah lifted her head. “Change of plans, Sommin. Can we use your teashop?”
The burly Nool appeared from behind the doorway. “Dot, come with me. We are going shopping for ingredients for tomorrow. For...”
Sarah smiled. “Two hours.”
“Two hours.” He smiled and ushered his curious assistant out of the shop.
&n
bsp; Sarah locked the doors, and she spread her arms. “We now have privacy for two hours. So, Bree and Arix, your girl is going to meet the council and hopefully be tapped as representative for Imrahl.”
Kromir shook his head. “That is now unlikely. Sirens belong in battle. They won’t take the chance of putting one as powerful as she is on a council.”
Lekorh frowned. “I am bringing Iktabi in on this.”
Three minutes later, Iktabi, Isabella, and their daughter, Sable, entered the teashop, and Sarah locked up again.
Sable shrieked happily and ran to Remi for a hug. “I missed you.”
“I know. Watch the wings, sweetie. You don’t want to knock anyone over.”
Sable chuckled and folded her wings tightly against her back. “Sorry. I am so glad you called us through.”
“I am glad I was there to do it.”
“Father says you are going to be leaving.”
Iktabi nodded from behind his daughter.
Sable smiled. “He thinks he has an idea to keep you from active duty unless you want to go. It will keep you separate from the rest of the Rrassic.”
Remi looked to him with a quirked brow. “You have an idea, Overseer?”
“I do. General Remi Bree-Arix of Imrahl.”
Kromir’s breath whooshed out of him before he started laughing. “That would do it.”
The Rrassic males were grinning, and even Alia had delight in her eyes.
Remi waited until the laughing subsided, and she cocked her head. “Does anyone want to explain this to me?”
Iktabi nodded. “Yes, but I will explain it while you are outfitted with rank insignia and a proper uniform. Kromil is going to have to work like a fiend on this one.”
Kromir looked delighted. “He is here? I wondered where he ended up.”
Isabella smiled. “Best clothing construction on Imrahl.”
Remi blinked. “The clock is ticking as mom says. Where do we need to go?”
Their entire party evacuated the teashop, taking the pastries along, and moved the invasion to the tailor’s shop. Kromir’s words made sense when she saw Kromil. They had come from the same genetic source. It was obvious. For lack of a better term, they were brothers.
Kromil was informed as to their requirements, and she was stripped, measured, and the fabricators started whirring before her boots had time to cool.
One hour after they had arrived in the shop, Sable had designed a rank insignia for Imrahl, and a cluster of them was on each shoulder of the graceful tunic that mimicked her earlier clothing.
In twelve hours, she had gone from hybrid to mother to general. She was a bit nervous about what the rest of the day was going to bring.
Alia stepped out from behind the curtain wearing the mark of the Saya on her shoulders. “I am coming with you. You will need a communicator, and I am connected to my parents and all the siblings that will come. Though you also have Kromir, you are not going out there alone.”
Lekorh was holding Sarah, but though they appeared sad, they were also bursting with pride.
“I will be happy to have you, Ally.”
Kromir nodded. “We have half an hour to get to the portal at the new city.”
Remi looked from Alia to Kromir. “Can you carry us both?”
He nodded. “I will need to drop from a rooftop.”
Alia grinned and glanced at her parents. “I know just the one.”
They grabbed the packs of clothing that Kromil had created, watched as the two brothers shared a handclasp, and then, they were running through the Imrahl afternoon toward the admin building.
They had a portal to catch.
Chapter Eleven
Remi was expecting to be greeted by weapons, but the entire council had shown up for their arrival. Not a weapon in sight.
Kromir stepped forward, and he inclined his head respectfully. “Gentlemen of the Rrassic council, I present General Remi Bree-Arix of Imrahl, siren of the Rrassic and first hybrid.”
The council murmured, and the representatives of the different branches of the species looked impressed.
Kromir continued. “At her side is Advisor Alia Sarah-Lekorh, Saya-Rrassic-human hybrid, and temporal communicator.”
Alia stood next to Remi with her head high and shoulders back.
There were two Rrassic that Remi hadn’t seen before. An aquatic Rrassic with silvery green skin and gills prominently displayed on his mostly bare torso. The crimson Rrassic with black hair was not one covered by the basic common listings.
So, this made the seven branches of the Rrassic. As they primarily reproduced via cloning, the branches were probably very direct lines.
The Zjin-Rrassic councillor looked them over. “Both female?”
She twisted her lips. “How astute of you to observe that.”
The councillors’ expressions varied from amused to irritated.
The Regiz smiled. “I do not mind that they are female. It seems an excellent situation.”
Remi held up her hand. “This situation has just begun five Mrek daughters. I have chosen my mate, and whether we reproduce again will not change my focus.”
The eyes of the council focused on Kromir.
He nodded, “All reports have been turned in to Ndoro.”
The Mrek councillor nodded. “He has. I just was unaware of the full nature of his mate. You say she is a siren?”
Kromir said, “She is. I have seen the evidence for myself, and others of her bloodline carry the same characteristic.”
Alia asked, “Are we to conduct the interview here? Or shall we proceed to the council chambers? Imrahl has already been notified of our arrival.”
The Saya looked at Alia, and she looked at him calmly with all three eyes open.
Remi watched the stare-down and could only imagine what was going on on the psychic plain.
* * * *
Alia stood with her feet firmly planted on the landscape of her mind. “You have entered without requesting entrance.”
The head of the Saya looked at her with curiosity. “You nearly kept me out. That is not something most of my trainees can manage.”
“Congratulations on walking on your own. I hear that many of our kind shun their own bodies.”
The Saya councillor looked at her with narrowed eyes. “You seem to know a lot.”
“My father has been an excellent instructor, as has my mother. I know why the council met us, and I have to tell you that we are no threat to the Rrassic. We are here for your survival.”
“You threaten our survival.” He scowled and approached her.
“We are your survival. Remi’s daughters are proof of it. They are fully Mrek on the genetic level. They are the next generation of Rrassic with functioning reproductive systems and a slightly shorter lifespan. When the threat of the Voboth is over, they will be ready to strike out among the stars.”
“You seem very sure of yourself, hybrid.”
“I have trained every minute of every day to learn how the Rrassic think, act, and what they want for their future. You want what any species want—triumph, a future, and survival.” She smiled. “Having one without the others is meaningless.”
“Would you and the siren agree to being neutralized while we look into the matter?”
Alia cocked her head. “Her daughters have already been decanted. Contact Lekorh for details on their status.”
“I cannot move my mind through time, as you know.”
She sighed. “Elder Councillor Ramor, I know. The reports on you were very detailed. Are you really wearing an armored framework under your suit?”
He looked down at his silvery skin, naked body, and dark tattoos that covered his chest and shoulders, even in his psychic projection, he was wearing his Saya rank marks.
She looked down at her own skin, and it was just the soft pinkish silver that she was used to. No marks for her. She wasn’t a traditionally trained Saya.
“How did you gain your control?”
“My cousins allowed me to practice on them. It was supervised, and any unusual activity was stopped immediately, but it let me understand how people think and why they hide information.”
“What do you mean, ‘cousins’?”
“It was decided early on that all hybrids address each other as cousin. It emphasizes our connection and minimizes the impact of our being raised by other couples if our parents are not available for the creche.”
“You had contact with your parents.” He seemed surprised.
“I did. My father linked with me directly when I was a few cells. When I gained consciousness, he knew, and he helped me through everything when he could. Except my homework. That was always ten days too late.” She smiled in fond remembrance.
“You have affection for your genetic donors.”
“We do. And our caregivers. We know that we were created in unions of mutual affection and desire. We were wanted for more than our destiny as weapons and warriors. Two people cared for each other and made us. Other couples raised us with the knowledge that we are wanted and needed. The younger children and older children around us let us know what we might become if we practice and remind us to teach the next generation. There is always another generation coming after us, as Remi has proved.”
Elder Ramor shook his head in amazement. “Stable with complete awareness. It is amazing that your mother was able to keep her sanity.”
“She was an empath before an accident rewired her for telepathy, so she was always aware of the minds of others. It has been hard for her to send her children off to be raised by others, but she does it gladly, knowing what the end game will be.”
He paused. “None of us know what it will be.”
She inclined her head to him. “You have not met my mother. She has run the permutations and combinations for the likelihood of success and is confident that the majority of the hybrids will survive.”
“What of the Rrassic?”
“Evolution is change, and adding new genetic patterns will bring that change to the Rrassic. Keep your seven divisions, we will blur the lines and be the greater for it.” Alia smiled and showed her teeth.
She lowered her canines for the display, and his eyes opened wide. She spoke carefully. “Within each hybrid is every possibility of the Rrassic, and while some characteristics are visible, others can rise when needed. Remi has the intelligence of a Dorbin, the strength of a Zjin, the stealth of a Luthin, and the voice of a siren. She wears it all with good humour and the sex drive of a Regiz. She has been made a general because she can command troops, and they will listen. She puts herself between the innocent and danger as a reflex, and she always has. She was a big sister to me when I was growing up, and when she left, the last ten years at the creche dragged. She is the key to mobilizing the hybrids and making them into a fighting force to be reckoned with. If you ignore her and her potential, you will regret it.”