Part I:

RAKKA

continued

The green eyes come close to hers, "…You put me under, didn't you," she can smell the intensity of his caramel venom in his skin and breath, "…not only myself but Tetonbaum," he seethes through his teeth, the eyes holding.

Miranda speaks over his golden wrist, the fingers tight about her neck, "…You were put out for your own health, Casnar," he gives her just enough room to breathe and talk, his nose next to her cheek as he glares down at her, "…Maybe you should thank us…"

"And maybe you should back off her," Garrus warns, his mandibles flaring open.

"You've only had it coming, Casnar," Kasumi in a delicate voice, "…You stole Braith away from Thane, and don't get me started on the news I've become aware of since Thane's received the shard from Traus." A hint of anger is betrayed by her tone as she moves to the iris of the medical lab, sliding cautiously behind him.

Casnar turns his eyes from the woman over his shoulder to Miranda, and hers move from Kasumi to his, "…You tore my heart out once…Finish the job, Miranda, you and Thane can tear me limb from limb." He releases her neck and she raises her hand to block it from any effort to return.

"You betrayed Braith, Casnar," she still has the nerve to say, but Casnar—at least when she knew him years ago—was always open to reason, "…She trusted you, you wrapped Kasumi up—"

Casnar thrusts his finger cross his chest at the woman about to enter the Medical Lab, "…Were it not for my decisions, she would have never met Tetonbaum and Tetonbaum would never have destroyed Konis's Sanctuary, or turned from Merce'des…As you can see," he hisses through his white teeth, stretching his face towards Miranda, "…He would do anything for her…Even let her stick one of your needles in him to put him into a sleep that would not hold him…You understand he's grown up in Nualavera…That means—"

"The durril?" Miranda says, blinking her confounded eyes at him, "…The durril has something to do with the stasis being interrupt—"

"No," Casnar's clip of a word shuts her quiet, "…He is bonded to N'ynnyaw…As I am bonded to N'ynnyaw," he shifts his body and twists his face closer to hers, "…You do realize, Miranda—Thane, if you're listening," his green eyes roll to the speakers above, and down to Miranda, "…I have been planning everything for a very long while…N'ynnyaw protects me—here," he taps his skull by his finger stabbing at the smooth temple, "…She woke me up…S-waves, Miranda…You know what those are?"

"No," she replies submissively. "You never told me about it…Only that the durril came from rachni…"

He leans back some. "We only got to first base, Miranda," he says coldly, "…Second base gets you from durril to N'ynnyaw, third would have been under the skirt you wore that day in the office when you were plying me for information about the family friends under Nualavera," his lips press together as he gazes coolly at her eyes.

…She turns heads as she comes from the lift, tablet in her arm, the legs exposed to her lower thighs…Sweet pale skin, I've never seen so much of it…The liquid way in which the skirt moves with each kick of her toned thighs against the fabric…Mithras, the motion itself is eye-fetching…I can see the others in the office tripping over their tongues…She looks at me, "…Soterios, time for a chat?"…

…I close my mouth. "….T-t-time?…I have reports for…for…"

She tilts her head, the hair tidy and up in that shell she manipulates it with some kind of needle…She continues to my desk, leans against it, her skirt and thigh pressing into the edge…

"…Right now, Soterios. The Abban has given me an hour alone with you…" My stylus drops…

…I see the rest grinning at me like fools…That bastard Feron's pumping his hips…I will strangle him if she turns and catches him in his idiocy…

"…But what's the point in talking about what never happened," Casnar goes on, ignoring his recall, "…Think I'm lying, Miranda?" He turns his face away. "Maybe I'm just making it all up…like you did." He moves down the passage, passed Kasumi, towards Grunt and Garrus, Miranda turning to see his back.

"What about the bond," she raises her voice at him, "…How did the rachni wake you?"

Casnar gives her the equivalent of a middle finger with his golden hand.

Miranda turns her face from Garrus and Grunt—who let the drell pass with a warning not to cause more trouble—to the doorway of Medical Lab she looks next, where Tetonbaum leans against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest and Kasumi between his chest and forearms, ensconced among the muscular limbs of taut red and blue skin.

"N'ynnyaw protects all Soterios-Sousan kin from harm," he answers her question instead, "…She will wake us…if she does not sense us," he explains, "…as she normally does."

"What about Irikah then!"

He shrugs and slides his arms from Kasumi, to rest his hands on his wife's small shoulders. "Iri could not be helped for definitively obvious reasons, Nefen Lawson," he smiles benignly, "…Were she here on Rakhana…"

Thane listens over the Ni S'pri's internal coms, playing into the cockpit.

"…She would be alive to this day," he hears Tetonbaum, "…and Kolyat would not have grown as he had too, without his mother."

"…But everything comes about for a reason," he adds, his face turning briefly to Kasumi's and his patak brightens, the sapphire eyes looking across the way to Miranda then, "…It is the hope Casnar holds, that he can affect the Eye of S'syalahe's pathway, to alter the future one fears for himself."

Miranda glances at Kasumi, and to the high th'ane, who is snuggling the pretty thief in his arms again.

"Are you one of them," Miranda asks, "…One of those who can see into the shard?"

He raises his eyes and shakes his head, patak ridge caught in Kasumi's thick black hair.

"I have not looked," he replies, not really giving her the answer she wanted, "…Nor have I wanted to try it for myself…" He strokes the caught hair off his ridges, "…I prefer to walk without that influence guiding my every decision." He shrugs gently, an elegant lift by shoulders shrouding Kasumi, who appears content to be in his arms. "Casnar and Cartira are more comfortable with manipulating such significant and delicate details."

"You're very delicate with the details," Kasumi reminds him, and he smiles down at her eyes.

"Your details."

The quiet that follows is telling—of more than Kasumi can withstand, without blushing…As she begins to do, Garrus adds his thoughts.

"You walk by a faith, but you have a religion…The Terje Tierrea…Don't you? And like Ylyssus," he adds, "…Or those burrells in the bay?"

"The Terje Tierrea provides us law and order," Tetonbaum pulls his eyes away from Kasumi, "…I believe in the law and order of the tierreas…My decisions, however, have always been guided by love…For my brothers, my sister, my father…"

Pain at the memory of his mother only causes him to comment about this fact of his life by the creasing of his eye corners.

"…Now Kasumi," Tetonbaum goes on without mentioning the maternity footnote of his life.

He turns his face into his wife's hair, pulls the scent of it into his nose with a loud inhalation, "…Love." He parts and kisses Kasumi on her hand, lowering this between them…Tetonbaum does not let go of it from his own.

Miranda looks at both of them. Something in her expression—Tetonbaum can see it is struggle. She turns and walks by them all, out to the connector from Medical Lab and that section they crowd together in.

Casnar is waiting by the edge, arms crossed his chest as he looks down at his ankles and boots, listening all the while they have been talking.

As Miranda turns, she bumps into him, "…Casnar," he looks right at her face, "…I came here for y—" Before she can finish, he's pulled her head forwards with his hand—swinging up to grasp behind it—meets her lips with his own.

For a breathless moment they kiss…

Casnar pulls away from her and moves his hand from her hair down to her own fingers, grabbing hold of these and leading to the crew section.

Tetonbaum down the passage perpendicular to the connector, looks to Kasumi who turns from the decreasing sight of Miranda's figure, from her shoulders down—then nothing more as she leaves with Casnar, to gaze up at her husband. She smiles back at his laughing eyes.

Garrus and Grunt are still staring at the end of the junction.

"Does that mean," Garrus fumbles over what to say and looks for help from the other three, "…Thane…and…she…"

Thane steeples his fingers together in the cockpit, aware of the silence, the questions, the altering relations—and partially uttered confessions—in the latter part of the ship from his section. His eyes are focused on the displays, showing him the exterior view of the Ni S'pri, and Ylyssus's gray-uniformed body and crests as the drell jogs off in the direction of Behedins' and asthurs' departure through the woods. He lifts his chin somewhat to tap his fingers thoughtfully against the tebral folds among the upside-down V beneath, …Good luck, Ylyssus…

Ylyssus runs through the woods without looking back…

The idea that Braith remembers him spurs him to catch up to Bromthas and the Behedins.

He could travel by ship but he knows that way, he would not be first to greet Braith in Bangal'roux.

No, he thinks, …she will be on the ground, waiting, and I have to see her before Casnar does…I need to see her remember me first…I'll know then…I'll know then what I'm living for…