“I think they’ll identify you asinteresting.” Kaede’s lip curled back from his fangs, venom sacs tingling with the promise of violence. “And interesting gets people killed. It getsherkilled.”
His tail snapped once—fast enough to blur, hard enough to hiss across the floor—betraying agitation that didn’t match the control he kept locked behind his calm.“Then what do you suggest? I won’t stay behind. I won’t leave her unprotected.”
“I’m not asking you to.” Kaede pulled up a new display, this one showing schematics of the CEG station’s security checkpoints. Species scanners. Biometric analyzers. The gauntlet of technology designed to identify, catalog, and assess every being that passed through. “I’m asking you to be smart about how you protect her.”
He tapped the console, and a new image appeared: a humanoid silhouette, generic and unremarkable.
“You have other forms.” It wasn’t a question. Kaede had done his research, cross-referenced Zyxel’s profile with everything they knew about Rkekh biology. “I assume you have a demi-human form with all your time with them under your care.Something that won’t make every species in the station wonder what just walked through their doors.”
Zyxel went very still.
The kind of stillness that came before a strike. Or a confession.
“I do.”His mental voice carried weight now, something vulnerable beneath the caution—old wounds opening.“But I haven’t used it since... since before I arrived at the asteroid base. That’s been years. Decades. That form feels wrong. Uncomfortable. Like wearing skin that doesn’t fit.”
“I don’t care about your comfort.” The words came out harsh, and Kaede didn’t soften them. Couldn’t afford to. “I care about Selena walking into that station and walking out alive. I care about the daughter she carries surviving to take her first breath. And right now, your comfort is a liability we can’t afford.”
Zyxel’s eyes narrowed. For a moment, the scholarly detachment cracked, and something fiercer showed through—the predator that lurked beneath the healer’s mask. Something that reminded Kaede why the Rkekh had been hunted in the first place.
They were dangerous. Not despite their adaptability, but because of it.
“You think I don’t know what’s at stake?”The words sliced through Kaede’s mental shields, sharp with emotion that the healer rarely allowed to surface.“She is myenax. My fated one. The Stars gave her to me after centuries of believing I would die alone, that my species would fade into extinction without ever knowing completion. I would tear this galaxy apart to keep her safe.”
“Then prove it.”
The challenge hung between them, charged and dangerous.
Kaede didn’t blink. Neither did Zyxel.
Seconds stretched into eternities, until time felt less like a measure and more like a threat.
The tactical displays kept flickering—maps pulsing, casualty numbers updating, comms scrolling like nothing in the universe had paused—while the two of them stood motionless at the center of it all, balanced on the knife-edge between understanding and violence.
“You’re bonded to the most important person in this galaxy.” Kaede’s voice dropped, low and certain as a death sentence. “That makes you a target. And a weapon.” He stepped closer, close enough to feel the heat radiating from those obsidian scales, close enough to smell the spicy warmth of Rkekh flesh. “Which would you rather be?”
The question settled over Zyxel like a weight.
His plates shifted, scales rasping against the floor as he processed. The fiber-optic strands at his tail tip flickered through colors—uncertainty, calculation, something that might have been determination crystallizing into resolve. His chartreuse eyes searched Kaede’s face for mockery. For a trap. For the hidden edge behind the words.
He found only necessity. Brutal and unadorned.
Finally, he answered.
“A weapon she can wield.”
Kaede allowed himself a single nod. Not approval, exactly. But acknowledgment. He was willing to sacrifice his comfort for Selena’s protection. That counted for something.
Maybe more than something.
“Good.” Kaede turned back to the tactical display, pulling up a new set of files. “But shifting forms isn’t enough. Your demi-human body will move wrong. Fight wrong. You’ll have no coils for balance, no tail for counterweight. You’ll be a liability in any combat situation unless you train.”
“Train?”Zyxel’s confusion rippled through the air between them, carrying notes of scholarly indignation.“I’ve studied combat techniques. I understand the theoretical applications of—”
“Theory doesn’t stop a weapon.” Kaede’s psydagger materialized in his hand, the purple energy humming as he spun it once, twice, before letting it settle. The weapon’s glow painted his features in violet light. “You need to learn how your new body moves under pressure. How to fight alongside others instead of relying on your instincts.”
He tapped another section of the display, and a third file appeared beside Zyxel’s: Ryzen’s profile, emerald-runed and cold-eyed. The Verya male’s spirit daggers gleamed in the image, nine weapons forged from will and grief.
“Ryzen?”Zyxel’s surprise was palpable, scales shifting with the emotional ripple.“You want me to train withhim?”
