Artificial light seeped into my eyelids. I squeezed them together as tight as I could. I could still smell the sweet candy on Vuvu’s breath as she ran her wet tongue across my cheek. “What in the worlds?” I tried to stand up, to look around.

My head lifted roughly three inches off of the hard pillow that it rested on, then my strength failed me and my head fell down heavily. Vuvu whimpered and started licking my aching head. The spot radiated pain, making me whimper as well. “Vuvu, what happened?” Then, remembering, I forced myself up, weakly turning to scan the room. “Terran.” I hissed.

“For the last time, I am not a Terran,” a soft, almost feline voice called from my kitchen. “I just don’t want to get sand lung before I can find a way to fix this pit.” The owner of the voice stepped in from the other room, a pitcher full of water and two glasses in tow. “I am sorry for my… methods. It just turns out, you are exactly what I have been looking for.” I started to protest, but she stopped me. “Ah, ah! I need to talk to you, and you need to listen. First, drink this water with me.”

I share the blood of my home, and the protection it affords.

I studied her more closely now. Her teeth were not sharpened to points, but her eyes were red and her hair was silver. Her skin had no blemishes, no scars or wrinkles. Her finger bore a ring with a jagged barb instead of a gemstone - perfect for accessing the source of a blood mage’s power, if they have not completed their training and earned their fangs.

“No. I think I will pass on the water. A blood mage shouldn’t need to lean on wives’ tales to feel safe from the likes of me. What do you want?” I rubbed my head and pushed myself up into a sitting position. “If this is about earlier, I won’t apologize for wanting to keep my city safe. A blood mage should understand that.”

“Drink it,” she said through clenched teeth. She set the glasses down in front of me, then moved a hand toward the heat cannon at her waist. She was absolutely mesmerizing. One of the perks of learning blood works was that a mage’s body was constantly healing itself, perfecting itself. You become immensely powerful, the most perfect version of yourself. A killing machine.

I could have been killed so easily. I was a fool.

I winced, pain radiating from my skull. My head swam, and I reached out to stabilize myself on the nightstand. She looked at me with a sense of urgency, almost like she was in pain. “Please.” The word was almost silent. She gestured to the glasses, and a thick drop of blood rolled down her cheek. Finally, reluctantly, I took a sip of the cool, earthy-tasting liquid. She picked up the other glass, staring at me as she drank the entire contents of the glass in a single gulp.

“Okay, now we can talk.” She wiped the drop from her cheek, sucked it off of her thumb, and spoke again. “I like your passion, kid. I think you might have what it takes.” She pulled her mouth up in a crooked grin, waiting for me to ask her to elaborate. The silence filled up my small apartment, pushing all around us both. I refused to give in to her.

The woman’s mouth twitched. Her nostrils flared. The only sound was from Vuvu’s tongue licking the woman’s bare feet. Definitely no sort of burglar deterrent, I thought as time and the tense moment expanded together until finally she said, “Seriously, you must be the most stubborn creature on this planet. Aren’t you even the slightest bit curious as to why I didn’t just kill you?”

“Should I be?” I glared at her, then called Vuvu to my side with a sharp snap of my finger. She ran up to me, stood up and put her forepaws on my upper leg, stretching out toward me while I absentmindedly scratched at her nose. Doing my best to feign disinterest, I asked, “I have what it takes? For what?”

She straightened up and looked at me with the same smirk she had worn initially. “Well, I’m glad you asked. I think you have what it takes to join the Talons. We always need brave soldiers that are willing to stick their necks out for our cause.” I wasn’t sure if i should feel honored or angry that she sees me as cannon fodder for the Terran army.

“Okay. So, what, I’m just supposed to strap on a blade and hop in a dust jumper? I couldn’t even fight you. What can I do to stop an Empire? What can I do that Royal Knights couldn’t? That Stravus and the Blood Mages couldn’t?”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“They couldn’t accomplish it because of their oaths! You don’t understand. We all take an oath to honor and obey the king. We cannot go against the will of the king, no matter how much we want. This is why we must share water with you in your house. Without that invitation, it is physically painful for us to be inside of a building under the king’s protection. The only one the king releases from our oath is High Mage Stravus. He has his own oaths and bindings, but they are not ours to know.”

My irritation was growing. “So far, you have broken into my house, knocked me unconscious, threatened me with your heat cannon, and then told me that you want me to take on the entire Terran Empire because you took an oath to the king. Did I miss anything?” She cleared her throat and shrugged at me. I waited a beat, then asked her the only question I could think of. “How many other brave idiots have you already put in boxes for your cause?”

She hesitated, almost as if she was actually counting up some innumerable group of brave fools that had died before. Eventually, she looked me in the eyes and answered. “Personally? Three. My father and my brother both perished many years ago. They were security for a diplomatic mission that was ambushed in the Kuiper Belt, just inside the edge of the Terrans’ home galaxy.”

The mention of the ambush in the Kuiper Belt caught my attention, but I tried not to let her see my reaction. “That’s two. The other?”

“The other was my lover. He was one of the blood mages that was hung from the capital ship. He swung from their metal fortress for seventeen days before he finally slipped the noose and fell down over the Temple of Boh in Amaria.” She was silent then, staring out with unfocused eyes, breath shaky.

“I’m sorry. Truly.” The holoreels had been full of images of the ten blood mages that were hung from the Terran PilotShip. The men had tried to sneak aboard the ship using Terran FlyBoots, but were caught when they breached the hull to the cargo bay and were strung up and flown around the capitol until each one fell. The last, Donoa Goli’i, had been hanging for twenty days before finally falling onto a fruit vendor’s stand in the market.

I felt for her, but I knew I had no way of helping her. Not knowing what else to say, I told her, “I have to get to work, and that means I need you to put your fancy helmet back on and get out of here.” I stood up and walked toward her helmet, which she had set on the counter.

“Please, there are things you need to know. Things about your father.” My eyelid pulsated at the mention of my father. I reached up reflexively and rubbed at it, then opened the door, gesturing for this strange woman to leave my house.

“My father is dead. If you don’t leave, I will call in a security scan. You won’t make it out of the building. System, engage-”

She cut me off, falling for my bluff. I couldn’t afford a security scanner, I thought, a smile finding its way onto my face.

“Okay, wait! I will go! I just hope you know that you are making a mistake.

“I’ve been making lots of mistakes today. Next time I’ll look out the peephole before I open the door.”

I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I was again kicking myself for getting caught up in this mess. I should have just listened to Gr’apa, stayed at the shop and helped with the customers so he could play with the toys. I pulled the cube he had given me from my pocket. The bird carved into the side had taken me a month to perfect. I was so proud to have something of my own design on his shelf.

I was a silly boy then, not even fourteen spins to speak of. I had already mastered all of the toys that we made – the sandwalkers and the wheeled bovii on strings, even the intricate dust jumper that was supposed to have been created by my father, more a tool than a toy. These silly cubes were nothing compared to that work of art.

The little faces of the different creatures all bore a smile, except the Terran. Nobody wanted the children to mistake the Terrans for anything but the monsters that they truly were. Rolling “Terran” meant you lost the game. The other sides each had a coordinating “win” and “loss.” Hawk beats Snake, but Snake beats Bovii. Bovii beats Fox, but Fox beats Hawk. Terran always loses.

Blood always wins.

I rolled the six-sided cube around in my hand, thinking about the silly games I would play with the other children, when I was permitted to play. Mostly, I just made the toys that the other children played with. It was easy for Gr’apa to find enjoyment with the silly things that the youngest children get to enjoy. He never got a chance to play with those things himself, as his father forced him to make toys as well.

Maybe my father would have done the same, I thought. That was a line of thinking that never got me anywhere pleasant, so I pushed the thoughts aside. He made his choice, leaving me to join the Terrans to serve as an “ambassador.” Maybe he thought he could improve the relationship between the two peoples, but it didn’t make leaving me any better. I rolled the die once for luck, hoping for the single crimson drop that signified my people.

Instead, an intricately carved hawk smiled up at me.