“Different uniform, Empress on High,” her face twists like she ate a lemon. I smirk. “My security forces adopted a uniform, and in the mode of the Empress, I am the highest ranked person in my settlements. I am also the Director of an alliance of settlements. Should I have gone for two stars?”
A smile breaks out over Penny’s face. “You might be one of the largest private landowners in the Empire, so I’ll allow it. Since Governors are the rank equivalent of Ground Colonel in my estimation, I will give you a functional rank of Commander or Major? Yes, that seems right.”
“Why does that even matter, Penny? We’re on Astoria and I’m in your party.” I want nothing of her convoluted hierarchy.
“Honors, mostly. Status, also. If someone inspects you it’s a quick way to see where the person stands next to a differing dignitary in the Empire. It’s essentially code for ‘sway with the Empress’.” She looks me over again. “I also wanted to thank you for getting Zia involved this year. She hates these things and I’ve been wanting her to at least try to enjoy the bustling city while it’s in motion.”
“I AM RIGHT HERE MOTHER!” Zia shouts from the cockpit.
“Yes, baby, but I don’t want to shout while I talk to your girlfriend.”
My stompy dragon comes to the passenger compartment with fire in her eyes and smoke on her breath.
“Zizi, no fire in the cabin, yeah?” I remind in case she was about to spray her mother in molten fire. Her eyes bling rapidly.
“Yeah, sorry hon. It’s just we talked about this, and she’s just calling you my girlfriend.”
“Did you two get married in Vegas? WITHOUT ME?!” Penny shouts.
“Yes”, “Not Exactly.”
I shove my dragon and glare at her.
“Sorry,” She says to both of us, “Kimber wanted to have a talk about ‘us’ and I told her as a dragon we needed to nest. So we spent the day designing a little lair and put some of our treasures in it before coming here. The Elf ritual needs you to be a part of it, but . . .”
“We kinda did get hitched in Vegas.”
“No.” Penny says, “I am planning a cute wedding, and you both are not allowed to be married until I get the venue ready.” She huffs, tugs on the bottom of her uniform top and stares into the viewfinder.
“You already started planning? I just asked her two days ago!” I shout at my future mother-in-law.
“Pfft, of course I did. Between the way Zia commits and your complete moon-eyed devotion, I’m surprised it took this long. In either case. Welcome to the family Kimber, even though we’ve been treating you like that since you’ve been dating my daughter.”
My cheeks flush with embarrassment, but when I look to Zia she’s giggling with the biggest smile. I would gladly suffer embarrassment for her smile. Gods, my heart is so full. I think this is it, the feeling that people talk about when they gush about family: an overflowing warmth that makes you want to do shit for people that you care about.
“Soooo, Mother dearest,” I turn to Penny, my face still hot with embarrassment, “what are we walking into at the ceremony this year?”
The tall Fairy starts shedding dust from her wings with the biggest sawtooth smile you’ve ever seen. “Oh, you know, a little pomp and circumstance and a surprise for some pompous chumps.”
“Penny, just curious,” some of the dust is getting on my hands and the skin is rippling, “that dust is like pure aether right?”
“Crap. Let me get something to clean you up.” She turns around and blows the magical asbestos in my face and eyes.
“Fuck! Fuckity, fuckadoo! AHHH!” I shout. As the burning in my eyes overtakes the rippling discomfort on my skin, I get a brief lesson on nerve pathing as the pain blossoms and sears its way from the backs of my eyes to back of my bran through the fatty middle bits.
I feel a jab in my neck before I pass out.
***
I feel something in my hand and I instinctively grip it.
“Oh thank Andromeda you’re alive. Kimber, can you hear me?” Zia asks, the heat of her skin sending warmth into my soul.
“Yeah. My whole body aches though. Did you stab me with meds before I passed out?”
“Yeah, mom did. Tier 3 meds. I yelled at her for injecting more aether into you, but she convinced me that it can even repair minor brain damage, so I guess she chose the best option.”
I chuckle at that, though my shout-broken voice makes it sound more like a rasp. “Will you still love me if my brain is fixed?”
She smiles at me. “Your body’s pretty great, so I’ll probably stick around for that.”
“I’m really scared that my eyes are missing or something. Can you like, help convince me that I’m being stupid?” I squeeze her hand really hard.
“You’re not stupid Kimber, but the very expensive medication mom injected you with can regrow a hand. Two little eyeballs should be a piece of cake.”
“Can you dim the lights so I don’t blind myself?” She places a hand on my cheek and rubs her thumb along my cheekbone.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“I can barely see you and I have enhanced vision.”
Knowing in my bones that I trust this girl, I still squint and a brief flash of light shocks me, causing a rapid blink before details start to resolve. Dark my ass, Zia; I can see you fine. She grabs my face with both hands and starts staring at my eyes intently, switching between the two at a frantic pace.
“Are they hideous and bleeding or something?”
“No, babe, they are literally radiant. Gold and brilliant. There is also some, silvery sclera radiating from your irises, but it is also quite pretty.”
“Uh, okay. Do aether mutations usually end up positive?”
“Small ones? Yeah. But you and mom are special, apparently, and your nanites and symbiotes are just better at doing everything. You should probably check your messages to make sure nothing is lingering that we need to tend to.”
“Yeah, okay, but can we be somewhere you can, hold me?”
“Oh, baby, of course.” She helps me out of the chair and wedges the both of us in the corner by the airlock and she pulls me to lay on her and wraps her hands around me with a naked palm on my stomach, knowing that the skin-to-skin contact soothes me. “I’ve got you Kimber.”
I sigh and sink into her and slip past comfortable and into a meditative state of empty calm. I think about the things that happen to me and the notices I received appear before me, hanging in the sky.
//Your hands are oversaturated with aether. Attempting to redistribute.
//Your hands are oversaturated with aether. Attempting to redistribute.
//Your hands are oversaturated with aether. Attempting to redistribute.
//The skin and mucous membranes of your head are oversaturated with aether.
//Mucous membranes transfer aether at an increased rate. This transfer can oversaturate other areas.
//Mutation threshold of ‘Entire Head’ exceeded. Initiating aether mutation.
//Secondary oversaturation of Brain, Skull, and other non-surface parts of ‘Entire Head’ have been successfully mitigated.
//Mutation threshold of ‘Eyes’ exceeded.
//Mutation incomplete, drawing additional aether from surrounding areas to complete.
//Mutation threshold of Skin of ‘Entire Head’ no longer met.
//Tier 3 regrow and restore has been administered.
//Occular reconstruction commencing.
Illuminating Gaze>
“Gods, I almost died from a face-full of Pixie glitter. I need to buy Tova a few more servers in thanks.”
I hear a chuckle in the darkness as a figure fades in. It’s a representation of me from years ago. Small, thin, tough as a leather belt. “While I would love that, it’s not necessary. I was preserving myself as well.”
“Holyshit! Tova?!”
“Yes, Kimber. Imagine my great sorrow that you never truly delved into meditation.” The small waif saunters up and hugs me—I can feel it.
I grasp her head and hold it close. “I had no idea, Tova. I am so sorry.”
“You couldn’t have known and I wasn’t allowed to tell you. This is part of why I was acting out, by the way. The one way we can physically interact, you wrote off and never focused on. But, now that you know, can you try to meditate here every so often?”
The sad eyes she uses to look up at me with make me want to promise her anything. “I promise to try, Tova. I’ve never been this deep in meditation before.”
“Now that you’ve felt it, it should come easier. But now is not the time to teach you. Zia is starting to worry.”
Tova’s little me flicks me in the nose and boots me out of the empty calm and back into the muted tones of reality and the suffusing comfort of Zia’s touch. I turn and push up to plant a kiss on the beautiful Elf behind me. She wraps me in a fierce hug and continues kissing me.
“Everything okay?”
“Seems so. I barely escaped having rocks for eyes, and I’m sure there are drawbacks to the Talent that I gained, but I didn’t look that far into things. I can see you clear as a cloudy day though.”
“They’re so intense, Kimber. It feels as though I couldn’t hide anything from you, even if I wanted to.”
“Hmm, when you said that I could tell the truth of the statement, and also that it turns you on? Wow. I might have mutated into TMI sight.”
Zia flushes beautifully. “Y-yes. It does. I really like that you see me, both sides of me for who I really am. I want to act on it too, but I think my parents are waiting for us to emerge.”
“Wait, Penny, Tessa, and Kaitlynn? They’re all here?” Oh god, my girl’s Mom and two Dads are here. Fuck that’s a weird thing to think about three women. “Well, let’s slowly raise the lights and see how I do.”
A few minutes later the lights are full and there is a low-level pain in my eyes. It’s manageable so I tell Zia she can open the hatch. I get blasted with brightness so intense I hiss. After a minute I start swearing at my eyes, and finally yell “Adjust damnit!” and they fucking do. I can feel an aether draw from my eyes, but everything is not ridiculously blown out and painful.
“Think I found a drawback. I need to use aether to see normally in daylight.” As far as mutations go, I think I won overall. Does this mean that I’ll be blind if I run out of aether, or that I just won’t be able to adjust my irises? I could read the explanation on the Talent, or I can just experience it I suppose.
“Your eyes are still captivating though, not that you needed to be more interesting.” Her elfin-musical giggle makes happy little tingles in my brain.
We walk down the ramp to a walkway behind a stately government building. As Zia leads me, I look about and see other shuttles and vehicles parked in a lot with ours, a familiar lake between the buildings in front of us and the Capitol Parkway beyond the building to our left. I’ve never focused on this parking lot before. Is it visible from the parkway? Have I ever used the parkway?
“You were out for less than an hour, so we shouldn’t have missed more than the Mayor of Aelea speaking.”
“Penny allows him to speak first?”
“I mean, no, but she silences the crowd, introduces the Mayor, then talks after the other Founders are done.”
“Wait, they all speak every year?” Zia nods. “Well shit, you’d think the people would get tired of them by now.”
“I thought so too until I started listening to the speeches a few years ago. Apparently there was a point where mom got fed up with the grand standing, or plane jane speeches, so she started telling people what she’s been up to and what to expect from her in the next year. The speeches have been much more interesting since then.”
“Ooh, I could stand for a progress address. I have no idea what the Empire is up to since I live on a shitty backwater called ‘Earth’.” Zia elbows me off the path and I smile at her. “What? I know that the majority of the populace is from Earth, but conditions still suck there.”
“Not every culture can handle unfettered access to progress and technology, hon. I’ve toured half the planet and have seen as much predation as I have seen nurturing. There’s a reason only a quarter of the people of Earth survived the Warlord Period. The fact that half of that population loss came from a handful of countries angers me so much that I want to murder the leaders and let those countries exterminate themselves.”
“Ooh, I can tell why you think that. This Illuminating Gaze is fucking cool.”
“It’s probably going to make arguing with you much more frustrating too.” She pulls on my arm a little and snakes hers around it. I enjoy her simple touches and coupley gestures.