"What is it?" I asked, but his expression had already told me: nothing good.
The viewscreen flickered to life in the center of the room, and a woman's face materialized.
She was Zorathi. That much was evident from her blue skin. Her eyes held the cold certainty of someone who had never once questioned their right to rule.
Her posture was perfect, her expression carved from marble. She didn't blink, didn't shift, didn't show any sign that she was addressing four naked soldiers and the human tangled in their sheets.
Torvyn's spine straightened. Through the Tether, I felt him shutting down. Closing doors I hadn't even known existed.
"Sister," he said flatly.
Sister. Of course. The resemblance was there beneath the differences: the same bone structure, the same unyielding set to the jaw. But where Torvyn's eyes held warmth behind their discipline, hers were ice.
"Torvyn." She didn't use a title. Didn't acknowledge the others. "You are summoned to the Reach. You, your crew, and your ship. A tribunal has been convened."
"On what grounds?"
"Violations of the Third Compact. Unauthorized bonding. Integration of foreign elements into sworn ritual." Her gaze moved to me. "Contamination of Zorathi cultural beliefs."
Contamination of what now?!
Not now. Go back to your box.
Kaedren surged forward. "You can't—"
"I am Executor of the Reach." Her voice cut through his protest like a blade. "I can do whatever the law requires." She paused, let the silence grow cold. "And the law is clear."
"She saved the galaxy," Lyrin said quietly. "She broke the corporation's rule. She—"
"I did not ask for her resume." The woman's eyes hadn't left mine. "I ordered your compliance."
"Why?" I asked, and my voice came out steadier than I felt. "Why now? Why this?"
She tilted her head, the first sign of anything approaching expression.
"Is your new pet speaking to me?" she asked Torvyn, her eyes never leaving me. "The Reach does not accept dilution. It does not accept compromise. And it certainly does not accept a human wearing bonds meant for Zorathi blood."
I will fully separate our consciousness, find a body, and dead-ass demolish her!
Shut up! To be clear, I don't disagree with you, but violence won't win this fight.
Fine. I'll stick to thinking really mean thoughts about her.
The woman's words landed like punches. Calculated, precise, designed to wound.
I waited for shame. For fear. For the familiar urge to shrink, to apologize for taking up space in a world that didn't want me.
It didn't come.
Torvyn moved to stand beside me. Not in front of me. Beside.
"She is tethered," he said, his voice hard. "By Zorathi ritual, witnessed and sworn. If you challenge that, you challenge all of us."
"And we will answer," Kaedren added, stepping to my other side.
Vaelix flanked me on the left, his usual grin replaced by something cold. Lyrin moved to stand with us, his fear still present through the Tether but overridden by something fiercer.
Five of us, standing together. Facing her as one.
