Scales


The Compact brought them together, but the Alliance brought her.


This story is a spin-off of the author's AUs from "DrellVerse". Drells are characters from "Mass Effect 3", and much is taken from the game's storyline for inspiration. Artwork is property of the author.


Rating: M


Chapter 1


He was in a funk—the meeting was not going as planned for Feron. "I didn't say twelve thousand, Soul that Screws in the Light."

"This One would be wiser to refer to Hanar by non-soul def—"

"I don't have time for name games, Baniri—Where's the money you promised me?"

"That is very rude, Sere Seaeh…." Feron groaned and bent to bang his hands on the desk, lowering his brow in frustration, then slowly looking up from the case to be sold in front of him, to the towering hanar floating above and beyond the glass desk, "….This One will have the desired sum converted to Rakhïk dragu in twenty hours, Kahjic Standard time, if Sere Seaeh accepts the change of conditions…." Feron stared at the mauve hanar pulsing its rapid flickers of bioluminescent, cellular light at him.

"You said twenty thousand."

"This One can do so much, what with bureaucratic constraints….Twelve thousand."

He straightened and stepped away from the desk, Feron pushing a chair that was in his way towards the wall and a drell hand that caught it.

"Thanks for nothing, Baniri."

"This One has a better offer elsewhere?"

"I'll find someone," Feron picked up the case, its black grooves felt by his fingers as he lifted and tucked it under his arm to leave….His eyes darted to the enforcers in the room—three Drells, all in the streamline wetsuits at triangular orientation around the desk, him, and Baniri, the hanar floating two meters above the black floor tiles….He turned to his left to leave before anyone decided to detain him….Feron left through the doorway opening to allow him passage out into the next dimly lit room.

He kept glancing over his shoulder to see if Baniri would send any of its Drells after him, and the case of data he held in his arm….The data was important, but not so important he couldn't depart from it, if doing so meant keeping his neck from being opened by a knife….Passing from the waiting area for Baniri's chamber in the base of Sybilla, Feron went through another doorway into the outer hall—a black tunnel pierced with sconces of bio-luminous algae, among the labyrinth making the Illuminated Primacy's enclave under the sea….He passed the case into his other arm as he walked along the empty hall carved by "Enkindlers" tech, beings who had once used the dead volcano as a military installation of sorts.

"Enkindlers" referred to protheans, which the hanari worshipped and praised among their culture there in Sybilla, and the outer reaches of the Illuminated Primacy's territories on Kahje….Feron made for another doorway at the end of the tunnel "hall", checking behind him again as he reached for it….

He stumbled, having not grasped the door, nor its handle, and his weight having anticipated the support that was no longer in place for him—The door had swung open.

Feron landed on the floor, pushed himself up quick, and patted himself for the case, his eyes wide behind shadowy tints surgically-implanted over his corneas. He spun, searching for it, puzzled he could have lost something so large and not have heard its fall and clatter echoing through the pyrotube he had entered, and he paused and looked left at the door—behind it—and saw someone standing there watching him.

He issued a soft trill, "….Soterios," Feron's body relaxed—a little, not much, "….thank the gods it's only you."

Casnar Soterios, a golden drell tightly fitted into a golden and black wetsuit, glared at him through non-tinted green eyes….He was holding the door in one hand, the other hand—armed with an expensive-looking omnikit—holding Feron's black case.

"Seaeh—What are you doing here?"

"I just came from seeing Baniri—"

"I can tell."

Casnar's face turned towards the doorway through which Feron had just stumbled out, deftly hiding Feron's case behind his own back as Casnar continued to hold open the door for the stalking figure approaching….Feron stepped out of the way as an enforcer from Baniri's chamber had come to follow him, but now was stopped to look from Feron to the drell with the golden patak, challenging him back with his own grim, green-eyed gaze.

Feron watched the confrontation, taking another step closer to Casnar holding the door and his case, separating himself safely from Thirixi's reach. "Sere Soterios," Thirixi eyeballed Feron once more, before concentrating his full attention on the other drell equally matched with him in height and physique, "….Baniri has not received your reports yet….Are you here to relay these?"

"They're coming," Casnar's lips moved, but his face was stone-like in quality, "….This fool next to me just fell over himself as I was passing to Records…." Casnar released the door to give something for Thirixi to think about….The heavy door closed, forcing the blue tebris'ed enforcer with green marks on his scalp to shoot out an arm, catching the heavy door from smacking him face-on.

Meanwhile, Casnar had cuffed Feron by his leather coat's sleeve, pulling him to walk ahead of himself down the pyrotube and passing the black case back to Feron.

Thirixi stared hotly after Casnar's back, walking behind Feron as they moved away.

Feron held the case tightly in front of him, feeling the insidiousness of the moment that passed.

"Inform Jehush Baniri that I will have the reports ready soon," Casnar's voice echoed back to the enforcer, Feron glancing behind them and quickly turning his face forward again, "….I'll send those by the appropriate department, Thirixi."


Feron let out a small breath of relief as they rounded the bend in the old lava tube, "….Damn Thirixi….If Baniri could put a bigger asshole on my trail, that Hanar would…." Feron could feel the icy claws leaving him from the promised threat the enforcer's appearance had suggested, "….Thanks for the help, Soterios."

"Did you ever consider that recommendation I made to you—To choose a new career path?…." Casnar's glower sank Feron into a cringe.

"No…." Feron shifted the case to his arm again, "….I can't….It's not like I can just walk away from it, you know?"

"That's too bad," Casnar faced ahead, blue algae on the ceiling of the pyrotube now, shimmering brighter as the pair passed below it—its bioluminescence faded in intensity on the "drips of frozen magma" as they moved on down the old cave-pipeway, "….because I think Baniri has you assigned to Thirixi's menjaga."

Menjaga….Feron recognized the Rakhïk term used by Drells who were given their own executioners….Th'anes' knivesused to kill Tyrannus-tiered Drells for being rebellious, or a problem to the governmental body that employed such trained killers over the Birutise'aha on the drell homeworld, Rakhana, "….I can't figure a way out, Soterios…." Feron cast him an irritated stare.

"Did you have to piss off the Abban?…." Casnar turned left with Feron through an arch formed between two pillars of ancient magma….Feron shifted the case up to his armpit under his arm.

They entered a new chamber—"New" as in renovated, modernized from the old conditions that had originally been discovered damaged from whatever cause, and which had been improved to the best of Hanar and Drell ability using the materials they had access to on Kahje….With the help of the Drell labor force brought to exist on Kahje with the implementation of the controversial "Compact" that allowed Drellkind to immigrate to the watery world, additions were made and the improvements gave the Records divisionsan office for researching Hanar queries related to the prothean archives embedded deeper below the dead volcano that was Sybilla….from where the Illuminated Primacy retrieved most—if not all—of its information about their former "Enkindlers". Also added to this renovated section were lift-wells that transferred staff to the holospheres above the sea, attached to the summit of the volcano and inside its caldera exposed above the dark waves, open-mouthed to the dreary, rainy skies of the planet.

They were all underwater right now, protected from the monstrous pressure being so deep below sea level by apparatuses that enabled the drells to work in their respective departments alongside members of the Illuminated Primacy without fear of being crushed or suffering "Bends" from rising through the higher levels to air.

Feron and Casnar both resided in a holosphere located inside Sybilla's caldera, which was identified as Sybilla Caldera, Holosphere 132-Dorca.

"Well, my fortune, right?…." Feron looked to the door that would give him access to the surface by lift-well platform, across the chamber by the leftmost corner in the office, "….I'd better find a new 'shop'," he turned his gaze to Casnar who had bent to a console with a catalogue on display, and was typing something into the transparent blue screen by a drellahna who was giving the Tyrannus drell an admiring glance, "….Know of anyone who wants some information about the Alliance?"