“Mother.”

Tvorh’s mother shifted within the cyst. “My poor, blind son.”

“I’m not so poor anymore. And I can see. Sort of.”

“And Hrega. Where is Bilr?”

“The Dux is taking care of her foot,” Hrega said. “Hi, mother!”

“My darlings. You shouldn’t have come.”

“What?”

“To save me.”

Tvorh placed a gently hand on the transparent skin of the cyst. “Mother, how could I not have?”

“I would have given anything to know you were safe, Tvorh. Not risking your life for me.”

“Mother, we’re family.”

“I know. And you’re my son.”

“Mother…” He glanced at the door. “I have to be going soon.”

“Of course you do.”

“They’re going to make me Generosus, Mother. Gens Nethress, I mean.”

“I am so proud of you.”

“I don’t have to, you know. I can… I could release you. We could run. They gave me the Symbiont. I could protect you, and we could find a safe place.”

“Tvorh. What would your Father say?”

“They brought Hrega and Bilr here.” Tvorh couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice. That self-pity alone would have brought his father’s stern gaze on him. “They brought them into the battle. They put my sisters in danger.”

There was a long pause. “Tvorh,” his mother said at last, “you have always been in danger.”

“How can I trust people like that?”

“What is best for your family?”

“To be with you!”

“And I will always be here, Tvorh, and all of Gens Nethress will protect me better than you alone ever could. Go to them, Tvorh. Do as they say. Come visit me. And I will help them. There is so much here, Tvorh.”

“I know. I saw it.”

“And I have access to all of it. I will serve Gens Nethress well, and so will you, and together we will keep your sisters safe, my beloved son. Go to Gens Nethress, and pledge your word to them. Let them be family to you.”

***

Resplendent Blooming 6

Candice hoisted the shredder onto her shoulder and watched as the fancy whorlboat descended straight onto her pasture. Damn thing was scaring the cows. “Riaghan, Siobhan, you round up your sibs and get them into the house.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Riaghan folded his books under his arm and took off running, while Siobhan hitched up her skirts and followed after. Good children, they were. If only their father could see them.

Candice sighed, slung the gun across her forearm, and walked toward the gleaming vessel. If those fancy blooded folk thought that her pasture would be their next conquest, they had another thing coming. She’d already lost enough; she wouldn’t let them take anything else from her.

As soon as the whorlcopter’s cockpit opened, she fired a shot into the air. “Next one’s in your head,” she shouted as she brought the gun to bear on a tall, dark-haired girl emerging from within.

If the girl was frightened, she didn’t show it. She leapt down to the grass, bounced a time or two on her toes as if testing its sponginess.

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“You’ll be wanting to turn around nice and slow, put your hands on your boat.”

“You’re Candice?” the girl shouted.

“Like I said. Nice and slow. Hey!” There was another one climbing out of the cockpit. Dark, black like the night. And a monster in size. “Hey, you! You too! Up against the boat!”

“It’s okay, mom,” a voice called from within the whorlboat.

Candice lowered the shredder as a head of golden hair appeared in the cockpit. “Aoife?”

Aoife dropped to the ground and smiled. “Hey, mom.”

“Aoife.” And then, somehow, they were with each other; Candice didn’t know if she had run to her darling girl or if Aoife had run to her. But they were together, hugging and laughing, and Candice clung to her daughter harder than she’d clung to anyone or anything before in her life. “They told me you wouldn’t be free to travel until you turned eighteen, and by then you’d probably have been wed off!”

“Yeah, well, something came up.”

“Oh, baby girl, look how you’ve grown up! If only your father could see you now!”

Aoife’s face fell, and suddenly Candice knew. She looked up at the two strangers. “What happened?”

Piotr nodded a respectful half-bow. “Your husband died a hero.”

“Died.” That was it, then. She had always known this day was coming, but… “Died a hero? Died a hero? I didn’t need him to die a hero. I needed him here, alive, with me, raising his children and helping to his wife.”

“Ferghall was a great man,” the girl said.

“Don’t you speak to me like that, like I’m some lovesick hussy to be soothed, you—”

“Maga Senrii.” The girl motioned toward the wolf’s head emblem on the whorlcopter. “Generosus Ortus Nethress. And I’m here on behalf of my father, Magus Dux Dorsin Generosus Ortus Nethress, to bring you a message.”

“Say on. And make it snappy. I just discovered I’m a woman bereaved,” Candice growled.

Senrii drew herself up to her full height. “Candice, please accept my deepest condolences on the passing of your husband Ferghall. His anger toward the Gentes notwithstanding, he chose, personally and without compulsion whatsoever, to join Gens Nethress in a suicidal sortie to keep the Gens from extinction. He acquitted himself marvelously on the field of valor, personally and without compulsion.

“During the assault on Acerbia, he discovered his daughter among the Sodalitatis there, and with her ended a Nxtlu assault on the local Sodality Chapterhouse. Aoife, for her part, armed the populace of Acerbia to rise up against its oppressors and displayed her own bravery in standing alone against an experienced Magus and Dux of Gens Nxtlu and wounding him thereby. In an attempt to protect his daughter and save Gens Nethress from extinction, Ferghall faced his own death without fear and gave his life selflessly.

“Accordingly, it is my deepest honor to proclaim Ferghall’s family Tutelae of Gens Nethress, with all the honors and privileges thereof, and to invite you to the conquest ceremony in Acerbia, where it will be my pleasure to meet with you personally.

“Eternally grateful for your husband’s services, Magus Dux Dorsin Generosus Ortus Nethress.”

Candice turned slowly to Aoife. “You stood alone against a Magus?”

Aoife grinned nervously. “Sort of.”

“Stupid girl! And hurt him?”

“Shot him in the side.”

“He slapped her across the room afterward,” Senrii put in.

Candice gathered Aoife in her arms again. “That’s my girl.”

“Madame,” Piotr interrupted. “Will you accompany us to Acerbia?”

“Will there be a funeral? Could stand to say goodbye to the man I wed.”

Piotr shook his head. “Though we saw your husband fall, we have not recovered his body. But there will — ”

Candice snorted. “Then how d’you know he’s dead?”

The Generosa and the Stigmatized warrior exchanged a look of reluctance. Candice rolled her eyes. “Out with it. I ain’t some fragile flower.”

Piotr spoke first. “Gens Nxtlu gave your husband an inadequate Symbiontic bond. He would need regular doses of the quiescence factor to keep his SOPHIOS from undesirable behavior, and the Gentes guard the factor jealously. We would have heard from him or of him if he were still alive.”

“Just like the Gentes to turn my man into a Warlock.” Candice looked back and forth between the two of them. “Begging no pardons from present company. Still, what about his remains?”

Piotr’s ebony face twisted with discomfort at the question. Senrii spoke up. “Probably fell into the rendering pool. Dissolved to atoms.”

“Huh.” Candice looked thoughtful. “And no funeral planned?”

“Not exactly,” Senrii said.

“Can’t imagine why I’m come back to the city, then. I prefer my freedom on the frontier, where my enemies don’t pretend to be people.” Candice turned back to the house. “Coming inside for a few, Aoife? Or staying?”

“Madame,” Piotr said, “there is to be a victory celebration. As new Tutelae of Gens Nethress, and given your husband’s bravery, he will be honored by name. Publicly.” Candice halted a few feet from the door of the house. “It is not a funeral as the Adonists would define it, but the Gentes pay their respects in their own way.”

“We’ll make sure you have the chance to have your own funeral,” Senrii put in. “It’s the least we can do. Come on.”

“Please, mom,” Aoife said. “Gens Nethress is okay. Won’t you come back with us? Just for a few days.”

Candice turned back and looked thoughtful. “Tutelae of Gens Nethress, eh? Never had much use for titles out on the frontier.”

“You don’t have to live out on the frontier anymore,” Senrii said. “You can live in the city. We do right by those who’ve done right by us.”

“Not everybody who lives out here is here because they’ve got nowhere else to go, girl. Did it ever occur to you that I’m out here because I want to be, because I’ve no interest in getting mixed up in the wars of your Gentes?”

“How’s that working out for you?” Senrii asked.

Candice sighed and turned back to the ranch house. “Well, I suppose I ought to offer you something to drink, at least. Come on in. I think I have a couple bottles of Ferghall’s favorite whiskey kicking around the house somewhere. He always did love a good whiskey, you know.

“And I think I wouldn’t mind a drink myself.”