Cey stared at her face in the mirror. Her actual face. The face she had worn for most of her life. Her skin was dark, ashen, and unlike that of the humans around her. Those among them with dark skin had a warmer, earthy, hue to them. *Her* skin had more of a cold, blueish undertone.

The complexion made signs of her aging hard to see, but they were there - thin lines and soft creases of the skin. She traced them with a finger, seeing her past, a roadmap of her life created with years of frustration, sorrow, and anger.

Even so, she knew she looked much younger than her actual years. The humans might judge her to be in her early forties. That was, what? A third of a human lifespan? It seemed fitting. She supposed she was at a third of hers as well.

That was the literal beauty of magic. It rejuvenated cells and kept the body young. The more magical ability one had, the longer one's lifespan tended to be.

She sighed and lowered her hand from her face and stared into the ice-like facade of her eyes, watching as they faded into a more human-like appearance. Her long and pointed ears seemed to shrink, and her skin faded into a light shade of brown.

This was the face Garcia had known. Or rather, Alex, as she had called him. They met long before he was an Admiral - when he was still but a lowly Commander.

/

"How is it *you* can get the Vulcans to listen to you while the rest of us receive nothing but blank, perplexed looks when we try to speak with them?" He had asked her after a particularly difficult day of meetings.

At the time, the humans were trying to push forward their Warp 5 plan. They were met with nothing but resistance from the side of the Vulcans who thought they weren't ready.

She herself had been invited to the talks at the behest of the Vulcan High Council. They meant to use her abilities and knowledge of humanity as a way to monitor the still fledgling society of Humans. That was the intention, but not how it would inevitably pan out.

She had spent many years among the Humans, before and after either first contact. From the perspective of the Vulcans, they had rescued her from the poor, backwards, barbaric planet and had elevated her back into civilized galactic society. That wasn't, of course, how she saw it. To her, they had simply been another stage in her long and turbulent life. Just the next place to go.

"You think so?" She had asked, knowing that he'd mistaken her for Human - as had been intended. "Hm. The Ambassador must be having a good day." She paused and made a show of glancing around her. "Or maybe he has a soft spot for me."

This was, of course, very far from the truth. Ambassador Soval actually saw her presence as an insult, as if the Council didn't trust him to do his job properly. The truth was worse. They very much wanted the Humans to fail.

He laughed. "If that's true, *you* should be the one lobbying for us. Then we might actually get somewhere."

They laughed.

He held out his hand to her. "Alejandro Garcia. You can call me Alex."

"Nice to meet you, Alex. I'm Cey Varo."

"Likewise, Cey." He paused. "I know you're new to Starfleet Headquarters. A few of the senior officers are getting together this evening and I think it would be great if you would join us. Get to know some of your new colleagues. I think you and my friend Maxwell would get along famously. What do you say?"

/

She had found him genuinely likeable; even back then. And even through the lies they became fast friends. Good friends.

He introduced her to Maxwell, and she introduced him to her roommate - Alicia. The four of them were a tight-knit group. A constant. And at Alex and Alicia's wedding, she and Maxwell were honored to be their maid of honor and best man.

When the truth was inevitably found out, there was a backlash. Nothing could be proven, of course - the Vulcans were quite good at subterfuge. Not that it mattered, much of it was buried, classified on both sides in order to save Human-Vulcan relations.

That was the official reason, anyway. In actuality, the Vulcans wanted to save face and weren't yet ready to relinquish control of the race they had spent so much time trying to mold into their image. And the Humans, well, they still needed their guides - for better or for worse.

This of course left her as the odd man out. She was thrown out of Starfleet and shunned by the Vulcans.

She no longer remembered if she felt angry or betrayed. She supposed not; it hadn't been the first time she'd been cast as the scapegoat. But she did remember that Alex refused to speak with her for years following the scandal. He valued truth. He believed it fostered trust and she had betrayed that fundamental belief.

Maxwell never forgave her. Rightly so, perhaps. But thankfully, Alex did - in time.

He said she couldn't have been so good a liar. That he had certainly seen the core good in her. Whether or not that was true, she didn't know. But it didn't matter. Theirs was a friendship she cherished. And now he was gone.

/

She found a pair of angry brown eyes staring back at her through the mirror and she soon realized that her hands were beginning to cramp as they gripped tightly to the sink before her. She let it go and massaged at her wrists. If there were ever a morning that meditation would be useful, it was this one.