by Lea Linnett
“Got a friend behind one of the bars. Thought we’d all need a bit of help to get through this monstrosity of a ‘Cultural Exchange party,’” she said, voice dripping with disdain. She peered past Ellie, waggling her fingers at someone in greeting, and Ellie turned to see a human woman sitting behind the nearest bar. Her dark hair was cropped short around her ears, slicked down to cover her cheeks in a geometric fashion, and she was practically glaring at Cara.
Ellie raised an eyebrow and turned back to the girl at her side. Unlike most of the humans Ellie had seen so far, Cara wasn’t wearing a dress. Instead, she wore dark trousers and a neat shirt that looked like it might have been made for a cicarian female.
“I don’t like dresses,” Cara explained when she caught her looking. “I’d prefer to be able to run away if some alien bozo decides to annoy me.”
“Surely it’s not that bad,” Ellie said with a frown. Her friend seemed lower on energy than normal, her posture tense, and Ellie found herself glancing around the room in search of the cause.
But Cara looked surprised. “You’re kidding me, right? Have you seen how the levekk keep looking at us? I feel like a museum exhibit. This thing is less ‘cultural exchange’ and more ‘Wooow, check out all this weird human shit.’” She gestured vaguely at the room. “They haven’t even got it right. Does any of this look familiar to you?”
Ellie’s eyebrows pinched as she looked around, surveying the childish star-patterns and the painfully bright color palette. “The tree is right,” she pointed out. “Huge, but right.”
Cara rolled her eyes. “The star is meant to be on top of the tree, not plastered all over the walls.” She hooked her low heel onto the table’s edge and leaned her chair back, seeming content to leave it at that, and Ellie took the opportunity to sip at her beer, sighing. At least that tasted familiar.
“Have you guys seen your bosses anywhere?” she asked, looking between Cara and Anna.
They exchanged a glance. “Mine’s on vacation,” said Cara, with a shrug.
Anna’s gaze dropped to the table. “I haven’t looked. I need a bit of a break, to be honest.”
Ellie wanted to ask if everything was all right, but Anna quickly changed the subject. They were just settling in to a murmured conversation about spirits when a flurry of sound interrupted them. The crowd thinned, revealing two tall figures arguing in the center of the hall.
Beside her, Cara went still, and Ellie wheeled herself around, craning her neck to see around the few bodies that now obstructed her. She gasped at who she saw.
Standing in the middle of the throng, the space around them quickly emptying, were Scott and Devis Sidana. Scott was wearing something dark and levekk in style, and it made him look like a soldier being reprimanded by his commanding officer as he stood straight-backed and unflinching under Devis’ apparent ire. The levekk stood equally firm, her expression ugly, but while an angry levekk would usually be enough to have Ellie running for cover, beside Scott, the levekk seemed a little less terrifying. The two of them were almost the same height, which stole some of the gravitas that she might otherwise have commanded.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” She heard the levekk female screech. “How many months until you understand exactly what your job is? I should have left you at home. You don’t deserve this fucking ode to your species!”
Ellie tried to exchange a disbelieving look with Cara, but the brunette’s sharp eyes were locked onto the scene, her expression stern.
Ellie looked back in time to see Devis saying something to Scott, quieter now, and to witness his reply. “Get out of my sight!” the levekk finally exploded, and turned away towards the stage, her footsteps loud on the hard flooring.
Scott stayed still for a few moments more, his expression the picture of mutinous anger, before finally his gaze flicked to Ellie and Cara’s table. He made his way over, the thin crowd parting around him as if he were riddled with some unique, human disease, and he sat down on Ellie’s other side with a loud thunk.
“Your levekk is charming,” Cara piped up, and the grin on her face was surprisingly mean.
Scott only glared at her, as if daring her to say anything more, and reached for a glass and a bottle of spirits. “She’s fine.”
Ellie sent Cara a frustrated look, and then turned to Scott. “Are you okay?”
The human sat back with a sigh, sending a short glare at the few people still gawping at him from around the table. They quickly averted their eyes. “I’m fine. Surely I’m not the only one here who’s been chewed out by their boss?”
He threw back a shot of whatever spirit he’d snatched from the table and sighed loudly before pouring another. He moved quickly, his movements jerking as if his anger was something physical trying to break free of his skin. He kept his eyes on the table, ignoring the party around him.
Ellie’s eyebrows knitted in confusion.
This made no sense. Just a week earlier, she’d seen Scott and Devis acting almost like equals. Scott, at the very least, had seemed exasperatedly fond more than anything, and Devis had been a far cry from the spitting, angry creature that just stormed across the room.
And Scott had always defended the levekk female.
Ellie glanced at Cara, almost surprised that she hadn’t voiced any of these doubts herself, but Cara was still looking Scott up and down like he was a flying fish that kept slipping out of its tank.
There was something going on, something Ellie couldn’t quite figure out, but as she opened her mouth to grill the two of them further there was a static buzz from the front of the room, and the crowd fell silent.
“Good afternoon, everyone.”
Helik!
Ellie practically leaped out of her chair, craning her neck to see the stage over the crowd of different-sized heads that blocked her view.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming today,” Helik continued, “from our program participants, to the donors, and of course our esteemed members of the media. I’m looking forward to seeing levekk all over our Constellation finally get a taste of human culture, with all of its unique peculiarities.”
Oh, that was definitely Charming Helik, Ellie noted with a roll of her eyes, but surrounded as she was by levekk and sub-species alike, she couldn’t see what she was really after. Without hesitating, she pulled out a chair, planting her feet on it.
With the alien heads out of the way, Ellie could finally see her soot in action, and she had to hold back a gasp when she spotted it.
Helik was standing in the center of the stage, a small, clip-on microphone following the line of his cheek, and he looked like nothing else in the room.
His soot stood out, stark and black, against the lurid mural behind him, sharpening his broad shoulders and tailoring in towards his narrow waist. Even with the high-collared, levekk-style shirt beneath, the soot accentuated the lines of his body perfectly, and for a moment, Ellie hardly believed that she’d made it. Even his trousers looked good, following the muscles of his thighs and stopping just where his strangely bent knees began. There, his boots took over, elegantly covering his ankle but allowing the wicked claws to flex under the lights.
She barely heard him as he continued to welcome the other guests. Even from this distance, the glossy blue ribbon she’d used to edge his lapels contrasted against his golden scales, and she almost felt giddy at how well it suited him.
Mixing human and levekk fashion should have looked so disjointed as to make Helik a laughing stock, but Ellie thought he’d never looked better.
“I’m really excited about how open the humans have been in sharing their culture with us. So finally, while I believe we may be a few days off, I’d like to wish them and everyone here the most productive of Christmases!”
A snicker traveled around Ellie’s table, and she cringed. In hindsight, she wasn’t sure the levekk would grasp the idea of a relaxing holiday, unless it involved basking in a heat room in silence.
Helik bowed stiffly to the crowd
and clicked off his microphone, disappearing from the stage, and Ellie regretfully descended from her chair. She could have enjoyed that view all afternoon.
As the humans around her erupted into newfound giggles over the decor, Ellie finished her drink and ventured out into the crowd. Soon, soft music filtered over the room, a sparse tune that sounded far more levekk-inspired than human.
She wended her way through the maze of bodies, most of them far broader and taller than her own. She wasn’t tall for a human, and these aliens made her feel even less consequential than when she was trawling through levekk stores or walking down levekk streets. Her eyes were so wide that she probably looked like a small, spooked animal, but she didn’t care. She wanted to find Helik, and while it was mostly in order to admire her handiwork up close, she couldn’t deny that she’d rather talk to him than the other humans.
She eventually found him amid a throng of levekk in the center of the room, and he noticed her immediately, as if he’d been looking for her too.
“Ah, here’s Ellie now,” he said, extending a clawed hand her way. She took it, a little thrill running through her at having him touch her in public, but her elation soon faded as she was pulled into the circle, the surrounding levekk all staring down at her as if she were a new type of bacteria. “She’s very efficient,” Helik continued. “She made this garment for me whilst still completing all of her other daily duties and acting as a spokesperson for her colleagues.”
Ellie’s face fell, her back straightening. Helik’s voice had taken on that slick tone again, and she realized that he was conducting a performance like on her first day, one in which she was now a prop.
“You may fear that humans are disorganized or rebellious. That they can’t be trusted,” Helik continued. “I know they don’t have the millennia-long proven track record of a cicarian or the straight-forward disposition of a xylidian, but really they’re not so different. All you need to do is respect them. Ellie here is a perfect example,” he added, and for the first time his claws on her shoulders made her tense uncomfortably. Her name sounded foreign on his lips, like that first time. “We explained her role and boundaries in a professional manner, and she complied with them. Additional responsibilities improved her work performance because we treated her like an employee—not like a slave. Isn’t that right, Ellie?”
She nodded mutely, her skin crawling.
There were a few cautious nods around the circle, a couple of head-tilts, and one levekk stepped forward. “I heard that humans were quite finicky. And that they eat a lot. What if we’re not equipped to accommodate them?”
“They eat no more often than any other sub-species,” Helik replied, his voice like silk. “And as long as you have the correct facilities, they vastly prefer to take care of themselves. Yes, I did install a separate cleansing unit for human use in my dwelling, but you should see expenditures like that as an investment, not a cost. Remember, we have to respect them, which means ensuring that they feel comfortable in our space. We are employers. Providers.
“Not slavers,” he added in a lower tone, and for a moment the feel of his claws tightening on her shoulder made her think she was in trouble. But when she looked, she found him eyeballing one levekk in particular, who had drifted her way, watching her a little too closely. “They deserve our respect,” Helik repeated.
A few more questions were thrown around the circle, but after a while the well ran dry, and they slowly dispersed. Ellie was glad, thinking she’d get a chance to finally speak to Helik herself, but soon another gaggle of onlookers amassed, and Ellie was being paraded in front of each of them in turn.
After what felt like an eternity, the horde thinned, and Ellie finally had a moment to breathe. But as she relaxed, Helik’s hands left her, and she turned to find him backing up a pace, putting a respectable distance between them.
Pushing down the small stab of hurt, she looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you were gonna sell me for a moment there,” she said in a voice just low enough to be buried by the chatter that surrounded them. Helik glanced around serenely, but she could see the tense line of his pale lips.
“There were a few that would’ve tried to buy you, too, but you heard what I said. Can’t sell an employee.”
That didn’t assuage the icy feeling in Ellie’s chest. “Still, talking about me as if I was your burnisher? Not very ‘respectful.’”
Helik’s brow plate dipped dangerously, his gaze finally meeting hers. “You’re not the product, I promise you,” he hissed, voice barely above a whisper as he leaned in. “The program is. We can’t talk about this now.”
He leaned away again, smiling cordially at a levekk passing by, and Ellie felt a new bud of frustration bloom within her. Helik was right, of course. Anger would only draw stares, just as Devis and Scott had earlier, but that wasn’t enough to extinguish the flame of frustration licking her insides.
Neither of them looked at each other, and Ellie forced herself to calm.
“The soot looks good,” she said, looking Helik up and down. “Blue’s your color.”
Helik paused, his mouth half-open, and something in his bearing softened. He smoothed a hand down the front of the garment, his claws gently scraping against the weave. “It really is fantastic work, Ellie.” He met her gaze, the icicles in his eyes melting slightly. “I couldn’t have asked for better.”
Ellie blushed, and she had to tuck her hands behind her back to stop herself from hugging him. That was the Helik she’s been searching for.
As she looked over her work, she noticed the cuff of Helik’s jacket had turned up, exposing his scaled wrist. She reached forward to straighten it on autopilot, but jumped back when Helik jerked, batting her hand away.
She froze, staring up at him. The levekk looked equally shocked, but recovered quickly, glancing around. “You should go spend time with the other humans,” he murmured, fixing the cuff nervously. “I can feel the next wave of donors descending.”
Ellie’s mouth fell open, and she cradled her hand to her stomach as if she’d been burned. She searched his face, waiting for the dagger-like pupils to soften again and for him to smile in that secret way that wasn’t Charming Helik or Nervous Helik or any of the other fake Heliks that she’d encountered over the last two months. But his smile was bland, his eyes speaking volumes, and in front of everything, all Ellie could see was a wall.
She shut her mouth with a snap, ducked her head, and turned away from him, leaving a muttered, “Yes, sir,” behind her. She didn’t dare look back at Helik as she picked her way through the crowd, too terrified that she wouldn’t recognize the levekk she saw there.
25
It was probably childish, but the last thing Ellie wanted to do when the party ended was go home and have to face Helik. So when Cara grabbed one arm and Anna grabbed the other and they announced that some of the humans were going to Cara’s place for more drinking, Ellie let them drag her along. To her surprise, Scott accompanied the small gaggle of humans as well, and he was pulled along behind Ellie by another human girl who was pointedly trying to monopolize his attention.
Cara’s levekk’s place wasn’t all that far from Kaan Tower, and the short walk there was warm and comfortable, despite the wintry holiday they’d just been celebrating. Ellie gazed up at the blue-ish dome arching high above them for as long as she dared before the alcohol set in and she began to feel woozy.
She refused to think of Helik, whose cold words had cut her deeper than she liked to admit. She knew how risky it was for them to even speak to each other in the first place, deep down, but that didn’t stop the pain she felt at how easily Helik had pushed her away. How did he do it? She could barely handle being apart from him lately, but Helik? A few murmured words and he was locked away behind thick sheets of glass.
It was like being balanced between two sets of razor blades. She couldn’t move too far from him, nor could she venture too close.
But no, she wouldn’t think about that.
>
“Hey, Anna,” she said, throwing her arm around the sunshine-yellow human. “What color do you want your next dress to be?”
The girl’s elated (drunken) squeal pierced the night, and by the time they reached Cara’s residence, Ellie had orders for more garments than she could possibly create, all of them for Anna.
She looked around with interest as they entered a squat apartment building made from shiny levekk metals. The elevator they took up was small and functional, but it clanked every so often, making Scott’s hanger-on press just a little closer every time. Ellie didn’t miss how the large human winced when she did so, edging away from the woman.
Inside, the levekk’s apartment had an unusual setup. Upon entering, the group of humans were faced with a large staircase with two small corridors that split off on either side.
“Okay! So to the left are my rooms, to the right is the area for entertaining guests, and upstairs is off-limits. That’s where my boss lives,” Cara said, her voice cutting over the humans’ whispering.
“You’ve got rooms? Plural?” Anna marveled, peering around.
“Yep. Boss wanted to see me as little as possible and was happy to give up some space to make sure that happened,” Cara said with a shrug, heading for the left-hand corridor.
“Won’t they be back soon?” asked Scott.
“He’s on vacation.”
“Dang, I wanted to see what he looked like,” Anna said, following Cara down the hallway and trailing the other humans behind her. “He’s a kerfaan, right? I bet he has cool scars.”
Cara laughed humorlessly. “Plenty of people have scars.” She paused at the end of the hallway, flicking on a light. “Maybe next time.”
Ellie followed along, peeking into Cara’s rooms with interest as she passed. It was a little less opulent than Helik’s place, the fittings a little older. She tried to catch Scott’s eye along the way, but he was watching Cara disappear around the corner, a frown creasing his brow.