Once he felt like he was far enough from his pursuer, Calumny Hane stopped running, turned around, and braced himself. It was time to make a stand.

Reaching deep into his mind, he grabbed a psionic construct that he had made specifically for this purpose. He pivoted in the direction he last saw the Vorak, and activated it.

"You didn't floss this morning, and your teeth stink!" Calumny Hane's voice roared into the mindspace of his foe, a fatal attack.

A hundred meters away, Sendin Marafek fell to the ground, twitching. It was true - she didn't floss this morning. But to say that her teeth stunk? That was pure calumny.

----------------------------------------

A year later, Calumny sat aboard the Jackie Robinson. There were so many things that Kemon had told him, so many things to think about. Another enemy to face, but an old one regardless. The Vorak may have not been behind the abductions, but he now knew that their taste for human flesh boded ill for his people regardless.

The Mission was in danger. He had to warn them.

Flashes of hot anger rose within him, bubbling outside as he clenched and unclenched his fists. It was not just the revelation of the Vorak that angered him - much as he was surprised, he knew that he had plenty of opportunities to discover their secrets had he had time to sit down and connect the dots earlier. His mind flashed back to the day when they came for him in the cell, and stole his flesh and blood.

No, it was not just the Vorak that angered him so. It was his own shortcomings - at himself, for not realising the truth earlier, for being the first human to be captured and whose flesh that they tasted first. It was at the Coalition, for not letting him be a more active combatant so that he may rain fury with his Adeptry upon the Vorak. And it was because of one other thing that Kemon had told him.

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A name. Ajengita.

The Illuminator, they called him, though that was undoubtedly a crude translation of the word. Yet the mere implication sickened him. He had granted knowledge to his enemies, handed them the very sword and mantle that he would have used to protect his own.

The idea only sent him further down a depressive funk when he heard a knock on his cabin hatch.

Muscly Kemon stepped in, barely squeezing in as his broad girth obstructed his way through the door. Such was the prize of such sublime attractiveness, though, and Calumny would have it no other way. His eyes appreciatively ran over the Casti's figure, lingering on the protruding centre, before coming to rest on Kemon's gorgeous eyes.

"Calumny..." started Kemon, then trailed off. He appeared at a loss for words, a hint of sadness and concern on his face. Instead of completing whatever he was going to say, Kemon laid his hands on Calumny Hane's shoulder, his psionic tentacles gently breaching the gap between their minds and controlling Calumny's mind.

Though Kemon was an Adept, he knew that controlling complex biological chemistry was beyond his abilities, only achievable by those more savant or novel than he - not to mention that he could not materialise inside the brain of another living being. Making Calumny happy again was not so as simple as a task as he would have liked with conventional Adeptry, so he would have to resort to unconventional methods.

Namely, psionics.

Calumny's mind controlled his psionics, enabling him to work freely within his mindscape and construct tools for him to play with, but the link worked the other way as well. Neigh had spent weeks losing sleep and descending into low-grade mania because of one such accident that Calumny had made. So Lemon would have to work quickly to do the opposite within his beloved human as well.

Yet it seemed that despite the sad mood that he was in, Calumny did not entirely want to resist the efforts that his Casti partner was making. Whether intentionally or not, his superconnector spun up and connected to Kemon.

A flash. A momentary melding of souls. And then separation.

"Wow Kemon!" roared Calumny. "I am much happier now! I have recognised that instead of being sad about all the things that the big, bad, evil and mean Vorak are doing, I should do something about my situation and not be sad instead!"

"Yes Calumny!!" huskily whispered Kemon. "You should always Live, Laugh and Love!"

"Yayyyyyyy!!!" screamed Neigh and Korbanok (who at this point, had shrunk back into his Casti form to fit inside the Jackie Robsinson).