To be The Immortal is to be a master of one’s own body.

* The immortal

***Sasha Honnuken***

“Oh gods, you’re heavy,” Sasha said to the fainted behemoth slumped over her shoulders.

‘En’hols are nothing but a pain in the ass.’ Truer words were never spoken. There must be some side-effect of seeing the future that makes En’hol unable to understand how much their actions inconvenienced others.

Sasha felt the muscles in her legs and back straining, the tendons in her knees crying out for mercy as she stumbled down the street just outside the Tower of Penance.

Her entire life, she’s been warned not to use her gift for vanity, and Sasha had stuck to that code, despite rumors to the contrary. But now was an emergency. She needed to make it as far as she could, as fast as possible, while carrying a heavy oaf.

She had a brief niggling thought that perhaps she was making the situation worse, but she shook it off.

It couldn’t get much worse anyway, and if she was found by the Kinzena before her uncle had a chance to see her, it would be drastically worse.

Right now her priority was getting home.

With an effort of will, Sasha directed the power in her chest toward her legs and back, subtly thickening the bone, strengthening the tendons, repairing the muscle, bigger and stronger. She turned her focus towards her lungs and heart, minutely expanding their size, and therefore her endurance.

Less is more, Sasha thought as she’d been reminded so many times. It took far less tweaking than an amateur would expect to drastically improve a body’s performance, and more than small changes often led to complications. Sometimes lethal ones.

As Sasha’s frame ever so slightly expanded, the burden over her shoulders became far more manageable.

She shrugged the unconscious En’hol completely onto her shoulders, then set herself to a trot, aiming for the Honnuken family manor.

They arrived about an hour before dawn, before the horizon had begun to show it’s first blush of sunlight.

Sasha sloughed the enormous sack of potatoes onto the approach to the manor in order to reach up to the rope beside the gate and yank hard, ringing the bell in the servant’s quarters.

Less than a minute later, a servant woman met her at the gate, dressed in a hastily-donned men’s guard uniform.

Sasha didn’t have time to overthink it.

“I need to see my uncle immediately.” Sasha said.

“Young mistress Sasha? The black-haired woman asked, her eyes wide with surprise. “What is the-“

“Right now!” Sasha said, hefting the nameless En’hol over her shoulders.

I should know who he is, Sasha thought to herself. The man was obviously related to Grant, and therefore an En’hol, one of the royal families, whom the greater houses were obligated to memorize.

Sasha could recite every member of both houses from memory, and yet…here she was, carrying one over her shoulders that she didn’t recognize.

A bastard, perhaps?

No.

The En’hol were masters of pulling out, according to her uncle, while the Kinzena strictly monitored all their sexual partners with a dedication bordering on psychotic.

Unwanted bastards just didn’t happen.

Okay, calm down, I don’t know he’s an En’hol. Perhaps he could simply share similar phenotypes with En’hols, without the associated power of reading the future.

And I’m a kulth worm.

Kinzena would not keep someone in the Tower of penance were they not highly dangerous, or highly valuable. The fact that the boy waltzed right out of the secure facility attested to the former.

Sasha lugged her burden past the startled servant, who began fluttering after her like a nervous hen.

“Young mistress, I thought you were out on a six-month stint with the navy, wha-“

“The boat sunk, shit happened,” Sasha interrupted as she dropped the oversized oaf onto the couch in the game room. “Can you please get my uncle. I need his help, right now.”

“The thing is…Your uncle is…unavailable.” The servant woman said, tapping her fingers together nervously, causing Sasha to pay more attention to her. The woman was absolutely stunning, her body seemed practically engineered to attract the male gaze, with curves that bordered on unnatural, enormous breasts, wide hips, perfect ass…and a bulge in her pants.

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“Uncle…” Sasha said, tilting her head.

“I wasn’t expecting company!” Corvos Honnuken cried, raising his/her hands.

“What is this!? You taught me from the time I could crawl never to use my gift for vanity!”

Corvos shrugged as his hips narrowed, curves lessening. “You’ve been around long enough, you’re gonna wanna play the field a bit. I wasn’t expecting company.”

Her uncle ran his fingers through his hair, and the raven black hair converted to thick blonde locks, his jaw becoming more masculine in the blink of an eye, eye color shifting to brown in a breath.

“Around long enough? You’re thirty-seven!” Sasha cried.

The Immortal paused, his eyes flickering to the side ever so slightly. “Right. What was this about an emergency? Let’s focus on that instead.”

“I think I just helped an En’hol escape from the Tower of Penance,” Sasha said, rubbing her aching forehead.

“How did you get from the ocean to the Tower of Penance – wait a second, did you just say there was an En’hol in the Tower of Penance!?”

Her uncle practically shoved her out of the way to inspect the nameless prophet lying on his couch.

He grabbed the En’hol’s face and wrenched it around to face him, studying it carefully.

“Oh….that’s not good.” He said, yanking the unconscious man’s face this way and that as he performed a diagnosis prying the man’s eye open and peering into them.

“He’s definitely an En’hol. How did they get an En’hol!?”

“I could’ve told you that.” Sasha muttered. She did tell him that.

The Immortal spun around and grabbed her shoulder, staring deep into her eyes. “You do realize that if anyone finds out the Kinzena had an En’hol imprisoned, there will be a war, right? Perhaps the biggest you’ll ever see.”

“I don’t know if he even exists. For the life of me, I can’t put a name to his face!” Sasha said.

“Hum,” her uncle frowned, looking back at the man on the couch. He tapped his fingers against the man’s chest as he performed a deep scan.

“The exhibited phenotypes in the face remind me of Marida En’hol, but her only son is Grant, and the bone structure is more reminiscent of…

His finger stopped.

He went pale.

“What?”

“We need to hide him.”

“Obviously,” Sasha scoffed. “A Kinzena is going to show up looking for me any minute now, and we can’t be seen harboring the enemy. What spooked you?”

He glanced at her askance.

“The Immortal does not spook. The Immortal simply recognizes there are certain things people are better off not knowing. Let’s put it this way. We’re going to hide this young man not only because it will avert a shitstorm, but because it’s the right thing to do!”

“Tanya, what’s keeping you so long? The Immortal isn’t going to be away forev-“

A rather handsome young man stuck his head through the doorway, his gaze landing on the Immortal wearing his uniform.

Sasha saw the instant the poor young man put two and two together, his jaw dropping, but thankfully he was quick on his feet.

“Evening milord. If you see Tanya again could you send her my way? She’s got some unfinished business that needs handling.”

Her uncle’s eye twitched as he violently motioned for the guard to leave.

“Really? Greg the Guard?”

“I wasn’t expecting company!” Her uncle repeated for the third time, his voice turning shrill. “Now help me move this…freak of nature.”

“Okay, Tanya.”

Together they heaved the nameless En’hol to a spot in the floor. Her uncle slid his fingernails into an invisible crack in the wood grain and hauled a panel straight out of the floor, revealing a secret compartment.

“Really? What if he wakes up?” Sasha asked.

“He’s not gonna wake up,” Her uncle said, tapping the man on the forehead and activating his power. “Now go fetch all the sand from the shed and some bamboo straws.”

“Why?” Sasha asked, cocking her head.

“Because I told you!” her uncle snapped, causing Sasha to jump in place, her heart pattering as she ran to comply.

A minute later, they were covering the aria’s supine body with sand while her uncle held the bamboo straw in place in the en’hol’s mouth.

“Kinzena have a superb feeling for space and the density of the matter inside it. It’s how they don’t teleport into a rock or some such. I used to play hide and seek when I was babysitting that brat Raze. He can tell if you’re hiding inside a closet, but if you bury yourself or hide underwater…you’ve got a much better chance.”

Sasha nodded as the sand finally started to make sense.

Two hours later, their work was put to the test.

****

“Good evening, Immortal,” Raze Kinzena said, giving a shallow bow as he acknowledged her uncle’s standing, which was equal to his own as the successor of house Kinzena.

“Good evening Raze.” The Immortal said. “What can I do for you, young master?”

“Hardly young anymore,” Raze said, scanning the room slowly, his gaze landing on Sasha.

Sasha’s heart slammed in her chest as she prepared to fight for her freedom.

“I’m glad that your niece returned from her deployment none the worse for wear.” Raze said.

What?

“Yes, I’m so pleased to have her back.” Her uncle said. “It was rather uneventful around here without my favorite apprentice.”

“Is no one going to address the Kinzena keeping their allies prisoner!?” Sasha blurted.

“Apologies for my father, but it would be for the best if you did not mention your stay in the tower in such a negative light.” Raze said.

“But-“ her uncle held up a hand, and Sasha bit off her protests.

“I delivered Sasha from her convalescence at the Tower of Penance last night, where she spent your time coming to grips with the horrors visited upon her by the Vith. My father believes that I am the one who released her. Any wrath your niece may have faced for last night’s…escapade has been directed toward me.”

“What do you want in exchange?” her uncle asked.

“Merely the opportunity to verify that the guest who departed with your niece is no longer present.” Raze said.

“Of course,” Corvos Honnuken said without a moment’s hesitation.

“This will only take a moment.”

Raze waved a hand in front of him, and Sasha’s jaw dropped as several dozen portals opened in front of the huge Kinzena, giving him a few of every single bedroom, ballroom, and broom closet in the entire mansion…at once.

The man’s gaze scanned the views impassively, not even showing a reaction as Greg the Guard yelped and covered himself, a man’s head seemingly appearing in the corner of the room.

“Thank you.” Raze said, once his scan was complete. A moment later, the towering figure vanished as suddenly as he arrived.

Sasha let out a huge sigh.

“Don’t. Relax.” Her uncle gritted out.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Raze said, his voice appearing seemingly before his body did, Nearly making Sasha jump in place.

Her uncle took it in stride.

“Yes, milord?”

“Sasha left the book I gave her to pass the time. It was a gift.” He said, holding out the oversized tome to her uncle.

“Many thanks, milord.” The Immortal said, taking the book.

“You’re welcome.” Raze vanished again.

“He can just…show up whenever he wants!?” Sasha exclaimed. “I thought there was some kind of time limit. I thought it was hard for them to teleport!?”

“Raze Kinzena is quite possibly the most powerful Kinzena ever born. Truly deserving of the title Omnipresent. He makes Vendrith look like a talentless hack.”

“Why isn’t he?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” her uncle said, glancing toward the panel in the floor where their sleeping guest was ensconced.