She is straining to see beyond the blindfold.

"Come on Steve! This is stupid! Where are we going?"

"To see a friend of mine. Trust me Tana."

The car pulls up and the image inducer flickers on, making her appear blind, carrying the stick.

"If this is some terrible joke Steve, I swear I will kill you."

"It's not a joke."

I help her out of the car and walk her along the path until the trees hide us from the road. She changes the appearance on the inducer, so she no longer appears blind, although the white strip remains over her eyes. I untie it and she blinks.

"Steve?"

"Come in."

I take her into the cool reception.

"We're here to see Dr Grant."

We're waved through and Michael looks up.

"Hi Steve. What were you calling about?"

"Etana, this is Mike. He specialises in avian medicine, especially resetting broken wings."

Her eyes widen and then she hugs me, crushing my ribs.

"Dammit Steve…"

Mike just stares at me.

"Can you explain?"

"Turn it off 'Tana."

She does and Mike doesn't display any of the usual shocked symptoms of first-time introducees of Etana. Instead he's staring at her wings.

"What the hell happened to those?"

She draws them close to her.

"Beaten while I was shielding a child. I thought they were in place and had the healing process speeded up by a sorceress. Unfortunately, the bones didn't go back to their original position."

Mike reaches out and her hand suddenly grabs his wrist.

"No."

"I'll need to be able to feel how bad the damage is. How old are the injuries?"

"Twenty-three years…six months and…eighteen days."

Mike goes pale.

"Why the hell didn't you go to a doctor?"

"I have…enemies. I manage."

"Like hell you aren't. The bones have healed in a terrible position. I'm going to have to rebreak them and set them properly. Now, can I?"

She releases his wrist and gently extends a wing slightly. Her full wingspan is nearly five metres and when she extends both, she can dominate a room entirely. Mike reaches out then stops.

"How do you want me to treat this? Impersonally, like they were a bird's wing or more as a doctor would treat an arm or leg?"

Etana shakes her head.

"I value my wings over my other limbs. To my people, the wings are our most private body part. Touching wings is… equivalent of…er… Well, between two adults, wing to wing contact is the start of…almost a mating ritual. Touching your partner's wings is actually considered more intimate than touching the body."

Well I didn't know that… And I go back to when she thought she was going to die of the Legacy Virus and she came to see me. And I held her close and her wings brushed my back, so softly I almost didn't feel it. And one of her hands just gently moved my hand into the base of her wings, where the feathers are soft and downy, where fur meets feathers and I just buried my fingers there. So what does that make me? We're not lovers, not in the sleeping together sense. Was she telling me something then, in a language I didn't understand? Mike's voice snaps me back to reality.

"So, respectful, but not in a way that could be construed as affectionate?"

"If you could."

"If you would come through to the office then Ma'am. I'll see if I can do anything for your wings."