Book 4
Siha: Rise of Rakhana
Part II
The twins dislike the food being pushed at them with a round eating utensil, one in each Casnar's hands, "…Anytime, you two!" he calls loudly over his shoulder from the kitchen through the cotovatre to the closed door to the boudicea, "…No," he says to the small round faces widening eyes at him, owl-sized sockets, "…No, I didn't mean you two."
The door finally opens and Braith steps briskly out, Ylyssus following. The twins' attention goes to their mother and Casnar's efforts to feed breakfast are thwarted.
"Your bowls are still full." She bends to their outstretched arms as each begins to cry and coo, Braith kissing each hand and brow medallion in the center of their heads.
Casnar rocks back in his chair. The utensils clink into the bowls. "I suck at this."
Braith chuckles, "…I'll feed one now and Ylyssus, you have the other," she picks up Jenner from his small seat straps, lifting him to her shoulder. Instantly does Jaspin's hand latch onto Jenner's foot, pulling the leg and its pant straight until Jenner screeches…Jaspin's voice is loudest.
Delicately separating the golden-copper fist from Jenner's little golden foot, Ylyssus picks up Jaspin to free Casnar from the table, and Braith with the younger of the two, "…The competition is strong in this one," Ylyssus bobs the child up and down, mimicking a little dance from his old days of slavery, "…You like to dance, too, don't you? Spirit like this," he spins with the child giggling now in good nature, "…you'll become an athlete or a champion."
Braith wriggles her index in her ear. "His voice is definitely the strongest."
Shaking his head and following the eldest twin with his eyes, Casnar was grateful to have Ylyssus there to handle Jaspin's tantrum. He turned his gaze to Braith in her dress as she seats herself opposite him, taken Jenner's breakfast to her side of the round table. Scooping up some food, she brings it to the baby's opening hands. Casnar's eyes move from the easy feeding to her dress. "I never get tired of seeing an open gown on you," and Braith smiles back at her husband's compliment, and his naughty grin.
The moment she's free of the twins, I'm flipping that hem up…
"Jenner," Braith tries to see the mess he's made on his face and hands as he tries to take the spoon.
Standing and hiding his erection, Casnar announces, "…I'm going to dress." The others are too distracted, attempting to feed and clean the twins.
Braith looks up at her second husband, "…You want to switch with me, give Jaspin here. Jenner's easier…"
Ylyssus looks back at her face, bobbing his twin in an arm while intermittently feeding Jaspin when he appears agreeable. "I have him."
She smiles at Ylyssus. It makes him warm. A little sadness he detects, however, "…You do…" She looks at Jenner to make sure he's not getting stains on the outfit Casnar changed him into, "…Like Little Behe, you were good with her..."
Ylyssus makes a cluck with his tongue and shakes his head. "Braith, don't do that…"
"I know…"
Little Behe was someone else's daughter, but Braith still raised her. She raised the drellahna with Ylyssus, and the rest of their friends in both Behedins and Mohouni. Braith would always remember the first child she cared for as her own…She kisses Jenner's soft little crest and holds him up as he pushes away the spoon, reaching for her hair. Studying the freckling on his brow scales, the twin studies her back with deep gray eyes, solemn and mesmerizing. His pleat-scale lips are wide as butterfly wings on his little pucker, the nose dainty and sharp. Wrinkled crests look as if they might have a wave to them, a bit of a curling under, and she can see the tebris puffing and closing its folds of satin-soft skin, violet, too, like his father's—without the blue-silver stain of durril. Casnar has dressed the child's torso with an infant's man'naan, the middle of the child's boney golden chest exposed, the tebris a purple V that points to the separation of embroidered silk trim. She sees Jaspin's outfit very much the mirror of his twin's, but is colored green, red and brown—Jenner's outfit's colors are blue, gold and yellow. Their pants are the same loose fabric-style for comfort.
Nuzzling her nose to the baby's, his little hands cup her temples then tangle into her black tresses. Ylyssus smiles at the sight of her interaction with Jenner.
Little Behe around, Braith was reserved, far more dutiful in her motherhood-role than bonded as she is to her blood children she made with Casnar.
That night in Clios, Ylyssus recalls with unpleasant vividness the manner in which Tetonbaum brought her to him and the ship bound for Kahje…and the shock of the bloody babies squalling in Casnar's bloody elbows.
That aside, Braith had had to balance her life as both a Behedin huntress and a T'urieo in Mohouni, and before that, a slave.
Regret has often teased him for how they started their relationship…It turned out the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he was heedlessly in love with his human-morthwyl wife…Moving his focus back to Jaspin, Ylyssus encourages the child to eat.
Glimpses of Jaspin's teeth are had as he bites into the food, which is made of grains, produce and meat of an aquatic creature. Freckles on his patak and brow, the scales of his head and face will harden as he grows, and darken as well...He is not identical to his brother but the faces are the same. They both smell of caramel venom…
Since Kahje, where Ylyssus was able to receive treatment for his condition from the mines, his sense of smell has returned. It is not perfect like Tetonbaum or Casnar's but it functions…Braith's scent is known to him now, and he enjoys taking showers with her…She enhances the experience with the shampoos and scrubs she applies to herself. The scents are stronger, and it is an aphrodisiac to him—to smell her in these perfumes…At the moment he can detect the scent of lavender in her hair and skin. She finishes Jenner's meal, sets the toddler on the floor of their tiny kitchen and walks him to the bathroom…The child knows how to relieve himself as she waits outside the privy. Jaspin starts to squirm, upset in the small pucker of his lips, the copper-gold and freckled cheeks of the round patak with its soft protuberances of future ridges and the tebris, violet-mauve, starts to pulsate at his mother's distance.
Jenner returns from his toilette and grasps onto one of her knees. Head far below the hem of dress, where it ends at her low-thigh. Never having seen Braith wear a dress until Kahje, Ylyssus understands why Casnar gets into a good mood whenever she wears one of these unique articles she orders from the online catalogues…The dresses are fitting, flirty, and move with a secret personality, particularly about Braith's long freckled legs…
Casnar may try and beat me to lifting that hem and making her dance under it…
Even with the twins around, nights feeling like sentry duty, Braith and her husbands still enjoy a healthy repertoire of intimacy…
Her dress is an emerald-green today, like Casnar's eyes and the greens in Ylyssus's multi-colored irises. Soft flower patches, stitched with gold threading, decorate the hems…Casnar can appreciate the dress, too, for having paid for it out of his own earnings…He and Ylyssus must work now to make a living, while Braith stays home to raise the children and is assisted time to time by Kasumi and Tetonbaum, off in their own lives together since they were reunited.
Braith lifts Jenner's reaching hands, lofting him upwards like a monkey to let him clutch her neck…She turns with him perched on her arm.
Ylyssus in his newest wetsuit, he looks very different from what she remembers of him in Mohouni…Thicker as in more meat in his limbs of muscle, neck and patak fuller, jaw squarer with proper meal intake and training…Casnar had him taken care of while she was separated from them…Something she is grateful to Casnar for doing, and it surprised her to learn they had become close in her absence…The fact he seconded Ylyssus as her alternate husband was also an unexpected but pleasant surprise, and Casnar shared everything with Ylyssus, no issues…
Though there was a line…Casnar and Ylyssus would never share her simultaneously, and never express intention towards each other, only with she.
Braith looks from Jenner's little patak to Jaspin and Ylyssus, "…You two near ready," Casnar returns from the bedroom and cotovatre then, wearing his own wetsuit. His is gold and red, whereas Ylyssus's gray and green…Braith doesn't mind the styles in Kahje but she prefers the comfortable silks, their-much-more-relaxed, billowy-loose materials on Rakhana…
Kahje is far more associated with efficiency, convenience than the romantic qualities of the Birutise'aha…
Were it not for her living on Rakhana all those long years, she would never have thought the planets so different in that regard…And of Rakhana, she had only seen the smallest portion…The future would reveal more.
Kissing Braith and Jenner, Casnar looks to Ylyssus, "…Everyone ready," he prompts them to depart, for it is drawing closer to the time for them to leave to their meeting with the councilors, "…We need to be on the move or we'll be late." He looks at Braith's dress, "…Maybe you should change into something more formal…A little longer perhaps?"
"Casnar," she smooths down the breast panel next to Jenner whose weight is wrinkling it, "…it's just a welfare check."
"It could be more, always the possibility," Casnar grumbles pessimistically. "They need no reason to take the kids…or you…They decide to, they can press any excuse, and it won't matter..."
This upsets her a little. "They'd better not be thinking of ways to take them, or me from them," she holds Jenner's head and kisses his patak reassuringly for herself. "Why would they do that…"
"They're…special, Braith," Casnar glances at Ylyssus, seeing the expression on his co-husband's patak…Braith does not understand that the twins are a virus to them and others…
Technically Braith is a virus too…
She has always confused them since the Kir. Stabbed by Thane, she had been thought freed or exorcised of whatever had brought her back to life, looking to mate morthwyl race with drellkind…The goal was not "exorcised"—Casnar and Ylyssus had slept with her once reunited in the Ni S'pri…
Shame on them?…She was still Braith, just different…She was morthwyl, human, possibly drell?…They didn't think the latter, but she could move as fast as them, climb as well as them, fight—if she needed to not use her biotics—and she understood Rakhïken, could speak it fluently...She was mostly Morthwyl, but Morthwyl could not speak…She could bear Drell children, but she wasn't physically Drell…She looked Human.
She was powerful. She was unnatural. She could live through Citadels, wars, mine collapses…She was immortal…And the Eye of S'syalahe chose her to preserve the morthwyl race…Her third husband was a morthwyl.
Cemal and her separation had been planned, and it was why Braith was not allowed outside their biosphere on Kahje…She could go outside their residence but beyond the secret holo-dome, in which they were protected by the Kahjic government, security had to be attached to her at all times…It was part of the conditions of their amnesty…Her amnesty…
For causing a morthwyl uprising…Fighting Drell clans in neighboring cities over land…She was pardoned. Many strings were pulled. Kahje became her temporary home.
That was well after their efforts to hide…
The night they reunited they had also fled the Ni S'pri. She had willed their departure…Bromthas and the Behedins had helped her, Casnar and Ylyssus to escape, leaving an asthur to take Braith where she wanted, her dutiful lovers following…The Ni S'pri had been broken into halves, the power in her enabling Braith to scatter the ship.
It was a tough night…
Miranda Lawson had attempted to prevent Braith from leaving but Braith's power was too strong…Everyone thought Miranda had been lost to the detonation that occurred when Braith threw her own power back at the woman…Miranda had been tossed into the Kir. Thane had tried to kill Braith next—Grunt and Garrus could only look on…The last they saw of Thane was a distant bright speck where Braith had thrown him with dark energy about a mile away.
The burrells went with Casnar. Ylyssus, the Behedin, everyone followed Braith…Tetonbaum remained with Kasumi, Garrus and Grunt, helping them to find Miranda and Thane…and when the old ship Kasumi and Braith had left behind years ago in Rakhana's upper orbital was called to pick them up—it was still there!—Tetonbaum had been captured by an arriving pha'laksh of th'anes from the mouth of the Kir in Thorolf…Kasumi and the others had had to leave while Tetonbaum went to his fate and spared their lives, Thane and Miranda in need of intensive care…
Fate would allow the lovesick drell to go after his brother at least, and filial loyalty won out.
Thus was the adventure into Rakka truly begun and years later, they were located in Clios fleeing the hunters from the Al'Kin, Ylyssus waiting on a ship bound for Kahje's sanctuary…The rescue had ended well, and Braith had been tended while the children cleaned, given food and hydration, warmth and care under the supervision of Casnar.
Ylyssus had stayed by Braith's side while they watched her heal herself from the labor, and Casnar was the only one to foresee this miracle…Her regenerative capability…One that she might pass to her sons…He had foreseen this all through the shards he kept with him, but many different paths had been created, divergent from the first, as a result of his meddling with the Eye's predictions…
His dreams were reminder of this mistake…or fortunate turn of events…He was not sure of either yet…
Standing beside him with Jenner, Braith tucks hair behind her ears and looks at her first husband…Casnar gazes back at her face, perfect in flawlessness, her body unreal…His gaze moves to the dark eyes of his youngest son by only a few seconds after his first son squirmed into his hands in those bogs under that ridgeline…His gaze moves next to Jaspin in Ylyssus's arm.
Jaspin looks back at him with the emerald eyes of his own face, as well as those of his ancestors. He does not know which of these twins will raise Rakhana to its rightful place among the rest of the species in the galaxy, perhaps even taking over all of these as the protheans had at one point, and he wonders…He is brought from his thoughts by a tug on his arm, "..You okay?" she asks.
"Yes," Casnar replies after a pause, "…just thinking how lucky we are."