Book 5

Siha: Rise of Rakhana

Part III

"Silver and Fire"

Reclining more on his right than straight back, Tetonbaum gazes across the table, his fingers drumming now and then.

Braith undoes her boots, glances across the table as she is leaned back into her seat with her heel on the chair under her, "…What…" A black bang falls in front of her face and she correctly sweeps it back, her hand moving around her head as she lifts and turns her neck to look him eyes on, "…What, Tetonbaum," the bang falls forward again as she tilts her head down and squints her eyes at him, the black eyebrow lines edging sharper with their angles. Behind her, Casnar and Ylyssus and Feron are accessing the bar, the "room" they were set up in being a former joint for the crew to create a rabble inside. Casnar looks over his shoulder at them, having pulled down a container from the shelfspace above the bar and setting it by another one. Feron sits on a stool, the nuke case across his lap. Ylyssus carries two sleeping babies in one arm, drawing down from the shelves and examining what he finds in search of food appropriate for the twins. Braith's black boot hangs open around her shin, drawing one's focus back to her as she props her jaw, her lips crescent in a smile as she licks one of her teeth and rubs her cheek with the long digit of the hand, "…Tetonbaum, why are you staring at me." Her voice comes out low and quiet so as not to raise Casnar's attention.

Tetonbaum has reclined lower in his seat and on the table, his arm taking up the length of it in front of him…He suddenly moans and puts the back of his hand to his head, "…I can't take this, Braith…I have a powerful urge to bed you right now," he adds with some new vigor, putting his other forearm down on the table and pulling himself onto it, "…I am no longer a dignified being, but a lascivious creature that needs to pin you from behind and ravage you until you can't resist me anymore, and slake your imprudent need on myself," he growls from his belly and turns in his seat, leaving her to stare after his cloak-hung back with her jaw slightly agape.

Having passed through a tall and narrow frame, Tetonbaum stops and tilts his face downward…He waits a moment, glances to the lit room behind him, then silent as the fabric on his person he walks a few steps and turns left down another passage.

Tetonbaum stops once he enters a new room, the color of deep reds and a yellowy underglow as it comes from the lights around him. He opens his lips to taste the air, his eyes and his power seeking before he takes another step in. Hands out to the sides, he moves as he is staring at the place, and as he turns…

The mural of a ship on a background and foreground of water and yellow sky, purple and red-belly-bottomed clouds, sales and rigging, masts…Seabirds, frothing crests of waves, oars and rails, portraits, "…By mithras," he turns full round and sees not the man watching him enter the gallery, "…What is this place?"

"You like it," the angled jaw and supple lips smiling say from his lean in the shadows, "…This is where I come to contemplate my own future, an ode to simpler times, more poetic days of how battles were waged and raged," Tetonbaum's awe-stricken face turns to him who possesses the eloquent voice, "…I also dream of vengeance here, Brother of the Cloth."

To Tetonbaum's sight, he only sees a lean shadow in the back corner of another passage, and it appears insignificant a shadow among the tall ceiling of that room. His hand moves aside his cloak to touch the hilt of his menjaga as the shadow pushes off the walls and starts forward through the frame, "…Not a th'ane," Tetonbaum murmurs, the shadow showing little of who walks out from his respite there in the dimly lit passage, "…But no less dangerous," if his eyes do not reveal more, his power sees everything, "…And a chimilys…What is a chimilys doing here—"

Head snapping up at feeling Tetonbaum's power's alert with her own, Braith freezes from taking off her other boot. Her chair is empty before Casnar, Ylyssus and Feron can ask her what's wrong.

Her hands on the frame leading to the giant room with the sea mural, Braith looks in and sees the drell coming over to Tetonbaum, "…Davied!" She near leaps into the room, the chimilys looking in her direction—Tetonbaum snapping his head about to catch her as she bounds in and throws her arms around the chimilys, whose expression of distrustful scrutiny alters to the ease of friendly recognition, and he holds her, laying his temple against her head while Tetonbaum looks on, Casnar and the others coming through the passage frame into the room.

Braith leans back but does not release Davied's elbows, staring up at him and her mouth in a wide smile, "…You're alive!"

"Of course, I am alive, little Shepard woman," Davied beams contentedly down at her freckles and gray eyes, "…You're beautiful as the day you returned a Behedin," his hands hold her wrists as he looks up and recognizes Ylyssus, "…Old friend, the supervisor," Ylyssus passes the sleeping twins to Casnar and opens his arms to accept Davied's embrace…Casnar watches with a seemingly placated smile, his concern lost as both Ylyssus and Braith have found a friend and not trouble…So far as he knows. Davied holds Ylyssus with one arm over his shoulders, the other on his waist, and turns to look at Braith with his yellow eyes, "…You found him or he found you?"

"We found each other," Braith is all smiles and glowing with the joy of seeing Davied again, "…What in the galaxy are you doing here of all places, Davied? This is Casnar Soterios, my husband, and the one I told you about," for a moment the first question is brushed aside as Davied raises his star-adorned brow and crests to take a more considering appraisal of Casnar, then he looks back at Braith.

"You married him…That one," a haughtiness slips subtly through his closer tilt of his delicate, thin face towards Braith, "…Over this one," his arm shifts Ylyssus forward some, the former th'ane grinning, "…This one who pined for you, pathetically, made love and fuss over you—"

"I married him too…Technically we haven't had a real wedding, but they're both my husbands…" She raises her hand, a soft bend to her elbow, "…As you can see, those two belong to us."

Straightening and pulling Ylyssus with him, Davied looks at the twins snoozing on their backs, mouths open, arms and legs dangling from Casnar's arms. "No…Truly?" Davied turns his surprised expression back to Braith, "…They look like drell!"

"Morthwyl, human, drell," Braith says, holding her fingers below her belt, "…Cool, huh?"

Davied flutters his eyelids and opens his mouth in a silent smile…He closes his lips and puts his arm around her shoulders, "…You please me…I would like to learn their names, Shepard."

"Jenner and Jaspin…Jaspin has green eyes, if that helps, but obviously you can't see them because they're sleeping." Davied presses his star scale against her brow, angling his eyes down at hers.

"And two husbands to take care of them?"

"It's all three—Well," Braith glances at Tetonbaum, who turns his jaw in a counterclockwise tilt to look at her expectantly, "…Maybe four now."

His face drawing into a stunned expression, Davied sends his eyes to her belly and to where she looked—seeing Tetonbaum.

His jaw drops in a little gasp.

"I was picked up at the Mohouni tear-crying station in the hills," Davied speaks as he enters a smaller sitting area with a table, chairs around it, and a light over the middle that casts shadows under their eyes…He enters with Braith behind him, taking a seat at the table and moving a carton of drink with his hand, "…The harvesting pits for the drells and drellahnas they take for their venom…There were ships there," he sits back in his chair and looks at her, standing next to him as he crosses his knees, one arm on the table palm down, "…I took one ship that would take me, and they tried to sell me, so I killed all but one and made him fly me home where I could seek my revenge."

"Did it happen?" Braith asks, her fingers tenting on the table under her palm as she places a hand on her hip…She is still in her blazer, pants, and recovered her missing boot.

Davied lowers his head and shakes his chin, eyes closing, "…Alas, my Shepard, we did not make it that far…A, what you say they say too, merc ship…Pirated the vessel—"

"Was it the Sigourney?" She smiles briefly as he opens his eyes and jerks his head up to look at her again.

"No…Some other ship, but they hijacked the vessel we were in, killed the last drell and took me when they saw I was no match for their weapons…But then they listened to me when I tell them about my home and my species—"

"Was it another drell ship?"

He shakes his head some more, "…No…They called themselves some angry name…Batarian…They look like furry humans with many eyes…Too many," he adds.

Braith's lips set into a pursed line, "…Batarians…What are batarians doing on Rakhana?"

"We were in this space," he gestures, spreading his arms and tilting further back on his chair as his fingers dance, "…And that is why they were not on Rakhana and I never made it to my home…Funny thing happens in space like in the ocean, Shepard," he says this, folding his arms in and pointing a dipping finger as he sits forward and places one hand on his knee…He is wearing dark gray pants with reinforced stitching and a number of pockets, a lighter gray shirt on his long torso and a brown leather strap that supports a large knife on his back, the sleeves cut short and the front of the shirt surrounding his neck, "…In the ocean, big fish gets eaten by bigger fish, and then bered comes along and eats biggest fish…Space is like that too, little ships getting taken by bigger ships until—" He looks at her with self-explaining eyes, his wrists rotating to supinate his palms to the room around them…Braith crosses her arms under her breasts and smiles, biting and rolling in her lower lip as she passes a circulatory gaze about before setting back on his eyes.

"The Sigourney…When's the last time you were on solid ground, Davied?"

He leans his brow downward, smoothing his palm over the top of his other hand, both covered in open-fingered gloves, "…Long time, Shepard…" He falls into a brief break of introspective quiet, "…A long time."

Swinging her hip slightly, Braith gently slaps his shoulder and gives him a push, "…Come on, Davied," she turns and leads him away from the table and the bright glow, "…You still got those pipes of yours?" She cranes her head back over her shoulder as she strides with him behind her, giving a lope after the woman with the long black legs.

Davied smiles conspiratorially at her as he joins her side, "…I never stopped…Your friend, the Massani fellow, he likes to listen to me once in a while."

Braith smiles and chuckles, canting her head forward as her black hair swings down from her shoulder, "…Really…You know," she raises her hand and points a wagging finger, "…I could tell you a time I had my suspicion he had some taste…Yeah, there was this party we threw in the Silversun Strip on the Citadel…My friend, Samara…"