The holographic mother shifts me gently, guiding my mouth to her other breast. I try to resist, shaking my head, but my lips part anyway, hungry for what I don’t want to do.
The second nipple presses into my mouth. The holographic milk flows richer here, heavier, carrying a strange calm that wasn’t there before. My limbs begin to tingle, and my mind begin to slow. My only coherent thought is that this is a drug, something engineered to dull my memory or to temper my resistance, or maybe even to make Earth nothing but a dream I thought I might have once had.
And still I drink hungrily, as if I’ve never had a drink of anything before now, and as if I won’t survive without this. Humiliated, I drain her breast because I’m incapable of stopping. I gulp the fluid down as fast as I can.
I can’t believe I’m doing this.
The voices chant around me, “Devotion remains.”
At last the flow stops. My lips slip away, wet with the last drops of her holographic milk.
Gai lifts his arms, his tone solemn and ritualistic. “The second breast seals the future. What Eve Eden once was is gone. Now, through nourishment, she has been reborn to her new life with us on the right side of the galaxy and as a rightful child of the goddesses.”
The large holographic goddess mother straightens, her jeweled arms lifting me upright. For a moment I stand in her glow, unsteady, coated in fading light. Then she releases me onto the cold stone floor.
Gai’s final words strike like a seal, “Behold her. She is no longer without a family. She is ours.”
“She is ours,” the guards echo one last time.
I stand in the middle of all this alien religion, and if it weren’t for the taste of the alien milk, sweet and heavy still, on my tongue, I mightthink I was on some very heavy psychedelic drugs. And then a sobering thought takes hold—they’ve given me what I always wanted.
A home.
I’m so confused by what’s just happened. When I try to reach backward, my childhood no longer answers me the same way.
The facts are still there—names, places, timelines—but the sharp edges are gone. No heat. No ache. It feels like remembering someone else’s life instead of my own.
I don’t know whether that’s mercy or theft.
Is this the dark side of the fate I was supposed to have? Here with these strange aliens, who look almost human, and treat me as if I were a half-sentient pet?
63
SUMMONED BY SERATH, RAFE
The transport dipsthrough the clouds, and I see the city of Rima sprawling beneath us. Reima Two’s second largest city and financial hub.
“Zira of House Serath,” Lorian says with awe.“The unofficial matriarch of Rima. There’s no older or wealthier family. I’m not surprised she’s summoned us.”
“No,” I agree, “it’s only surprising she waited so long.”
“The rumors are that she’s fond of humans.”
“A pet,” I correct him, though even before we land I know it will be more complicated than that. I have no doubt this has something to do with Eve. I’m just worried that whatever she wants, the price may be too high for what we are willing to pay.
The transport banks low, skimming towers of glass and alloy. Rima doesn’t have Alba’s colorful buildings; it’s a much more serious-looking city and makes Alba look quaint by comparison.
We touch down at the Serath estate. It is less a home than a citadel of commerce, with walls of living crystal that radiate economic power.
Guards guide us through colonnades lined with black-veined stone. Inside, chambers flow one into another; the compound serves as both a residence and a business entwined.
Finally, we are announced, and Zira receives us in a large hall that is sparse except for the silk banners of her house that break the solid black of the obsidian walls, traditional Reima Two decor.She doesn’t rise when we enter; she just watches us, as if she’s reading a very serious report.
I’m surprised that she looks younger in person than she does in images. Her face is a pleasing round shape; her clothing is immaculate, as are the silver chains around her neck and coiled through her black hair, denoting her power and status.
Lorian and I both bow deeply.
“Sovereign Rafe and Shadow Sovereign Lorian.” Her voice is low, resonant, and assured. “You have come to Rima at last.” She lets the words breathe before adding, with a flicker of amusement, “One wonders why you have not gone to see your beloved Eve first. Or perhaps you trust your father implicitly.”
