I spent the whole week pleasing and being pleased with Presence. I had no idea that just a little bit of stimulation mentally could make your physical body react in so many different ways. Ohazith showed me that a woman could also be pleased in many different ways than I had known as well. She assured me that none of the things I did for her broke my word to Lashina because we didn't have sex with each other.
I personally wasn't touched physically, except for passionate kisses and random caresses on my chest and arms, even though I could feel how much Ohazith wanted to please me with her body. It was a deep seeded need in her to have me join with her, especially after sharing so much mentally and emotionally, and I admired her restraint and resolve to keep her oath to the Goddess Chaiya. To make up for that, I pleased her as much as I could and for as long as she wanted me to, and she was very grateful for the extra attention.
When the week of vacation time we had together came to an end, she had successfully taught me how to mask the flow of Presence inside my own body, even better than my Stealth technique could manage. I think it was because she was deep inside my head that I learned so quickly, and I thanked her profusely for showing me such an important technique. With both the Mask Presence and my Stealth technique combined, I could potentially hide myself from everyone, even master level Presence users.
My dear Marcus. Ohazith thought to me as we dressed. If I knew anything more, I would teach you that as well.
Thank you. I thought as I gave her a hug and a quick kiss. I don't know why I'm not angry at you for using my name from my old life. I thought to her as we walked over to the door of my room, and she chuckled.
It's because I'm not being malicious or ignoring the name you use now, Ullir. It is but a placeholder that references you. Ohazith thought and cupped the sides of my face with her extra hands. Like Lashina, I accept you for who you are and I don't judge you. She leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. We both know that you have a deep repressed anger inside of you and it will shape you as you grow older.
You're not going to tell me to try and get rid of it? I asked, surprised.
Ohazith laughed. Why would I tell you to remove your strongest ally?
But... isn't it... doesn't it cloud people's judgment? I asked, repeating what The Order teachers said.
Only those without your focus, my dear. Most would strike out randomly and hurt those around them in rage. Unlike them, you know what you want to do and you use that anger to get you there. Ohazith thought and then smiled. I want to keep kissing you so I can delay your departure. She thought, amused. Am I a bad person?
That made me smile and I took her into my arms again and gave her the kiss that she deserved. She moaned into my mouth as I eased my Presence into her center through my own chest.
I am very tempted to go with you. Ohazith thought as we broke the kiss.
“There's lots of room on the ship.” I said out loud, for the benefit of those standing in the floor's lobby waiting for me, assuming they could hear me, then I whispered. “Quit your job and come with me.”
Ohazith raised her eyebrows at me as I felt her Presence inside my head, then she smiled. It touches my heart that you really mean that, dear. She thought and I felt how flattered she was. I would not last a month trying to stop myself from seducing you, let alone an entire year.
Ohazith caressed my face one last time before she carefully folded her extra arms down and around her belly, then covered them in Presence. I had taught her how to use Presence to keep them healthy and to give them the nutrients they would need to be restored to proper working order. She had known how to reinforce them slightly, and the technique I taught her would make it much easier and less draining for her.
If you come back this way in a year, please look for me. Ohazith thought, gave me a quick kiss, and opened the door. Everyone in the hallway stared at the two of us as we left my room and as we walked over to them to board the lift.
“Was Ullir the urgent business you needed to tend to all week?” Donny asked Ohazith.
Luxea whacked him in the back of the head with her hand.
“Ow. Okay, I kinda deserved that.” Donny said and rubbed the spot.
I smiled. “Before you ask or even wonder, I kept my word and I did not have sex with Ohazith.” I said, truthfully.
“That does not mean that I didn't have sex.” Ohazith said with a huge smile, which made Rhubin, Donny and Rus scratch their heads over how that would work. Luxea, Evelyn, and Cassie knew what she meant and their faces flushed red.
“I can't believe the week passed by so fast.” I said as the lift arrived and I helped Ohazith step into it. “It feels like we just got here and now we're leaving.”
No one said anything as they stepped into the lift behind us with their luggage. For them, they had had the busiest time every day while the older man that owned the place took them on tours to see everything. We exited the lift and Ohazith walked us out to the shuttle.
“Thank you for coming to our humble resort.” Ohazith said in her high pitched voice. “We sincerely hope you will visit Esyndae the next time you pass by.”
“I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I can guarantee it.” Rus said with a smile.
“I can't wait to get back to the ship so I can relax.” Evelyn said and rubbed the back of her neck, which made everyone laugh.
“She needs a vacation from her vacation!” Donny laughed as everyone else climbed aboard the shuttle.
I stopped walking to talk to Ohazith. “Are you sure that...”
“I have a role to play and I must play it, so you need to leave before I go crazy and decide to go with you.” Ohazith said and gave me one last kiss.
I was tempted to just pick her up and carry her away, and she laughed as she 'saw' me do that in my head. She gave me a little push and then put a hand over her heart.
“Goodbye, Ullir.” Ohazith said out loud. Goodbye, Dearest One. She said in my head.
“Come on, loverboy.” Donny said and pulled me into the shuttle and shut the hatch. “For someone who is saving himself, you've sure got a way with the ladies.”
I didn't say anything and sat down at the back of the shuttle without even trying to take the co-pilot seat. Everyone went quiet as Rhubin powered up the shuttle and then took off. We left the small moon and spiralled up through various orbits to stay clear of the other ships, then docked with the long haul transport. Luxea used her datapad to activate the umbilical and pressurized it, then we were inside the ship and stored our things in our rooms.
I didn't even get a souvenir. I thought with a smile as the ship powered up from its stand-down condition and started to move, then Luxea's voice came over the speaker.
“Ullir, get up to the cockpit right now!” Luxea exclaimed, her voice full of urgency.
I ran from my sleeping compartment and jumped into the central shaft that was now in zero gravity and completely open, then used Presence to propel myself up to the cockpit and barely landed on the deck and ran into the cockpit. Rus, Cassie and Luxea stared at me because of my sudden appearance.
“What is it?” I asked.
Rus moved out of the way and hit a button to activate the communication system at his station and I saw Ohazith's frantic face.
“Ullir, thank the Goddess.” Ohazith said. “An Order ship exited hyperspace a few minutes ago and broadcast a warning about you being a rogue.” She said. “They are on a fast intercept course for Esyndae and you need to leave right now.”
“Ohazith...”
“There's no time for pleasant conversation, my dear.” Ohazith said and hit several buttons. “I'm sending you the data on the three ships you are looking for.”
“No!” I exclaimed. “You'll be arrested!”
“It's already done.” Ohazith said. “There are no names, so you should look at the pictures for the passenger manifests.”
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“Ohazith! Take an escape pod and we'll pick you up with the shuttle!” I said frantically.
“They are already at my door, dear.” Ohazith said. “I have truly been blessed by the Goddess Chaiya to have known you, Ullir.”
There was a small explosion and the door behind her burst open. The older man that owned the resort and two guards stepped into the room.
“End the call, Ohazith.” The older man said.
“Very well.” Ohazith said and hit the button to stop the audio on my side.
“N-no...” I put my hand on the screen.
“The Order has issued a bounty on the man you spent the week with.” The older man said. “What did he tell you?”
“We didn't speak about who he is or what he's done.” Ohazith said. “We didn't speak at all, actually.”
“You shouldn't lie to me.” The older man said and the two guards raised their weapons.
“I've never lied to you.” Ohazith said. “Not in all the years I've worked here.”
“Are you a rogue collaborator now?” The older man asked and raised his wrist communicator. “You sent a lot of data up to Rus' ship.”
“I am.” Ohazith said. “Ullir needed my help, and I did it gladly.”
“No!” I exclaimed.
The older man shook his head. “You know the penalty for divulging personal information on the guests, and you did it anyway.”
“I did.” Ohazith admitted.
The old man sighed. “You were the best greeter and tour guide I had working here.”
The two guards took firing stances, and Ohazith didn't try to run or hide.
“You were the best employer.” Ohazith said, and the two guards shot her. One through the heart and the other through the center of her chest and through her Presence center.
“NOOOOO!” I yelled as I saw her lifeless body fall out of sight. I let my repressed anger out as I gathered an absurd amount of Presence to myself. I had learned that I didn't need to physically touch someone to use Presence on them, and that little lightning bolts would come out if I used too much Presence. I also knew that all energy and matter had Presence in it, so I used that knowledge in the most efficient way possible. The signal from the planet that let me see what was happening, actually had a very thin line of Presence inside of it.
I let my anger boost my level of Presence far beyond what I should have and I shoved it as hard and as fast as I could into the communications display on the ship. It travelled down to the planet through that signal instantly as I concentrated on the men in the room, and huge lightning bolts burst out of Ohazith's display and struck them.
“ARGH!” The older man and the two guards yelled as my lightning bolts electrocuted them.
“ULLIR!” Luxea yelled and grabbed my shoulders to pull me away from the display. “STOP IT!”
As my hands lifted from the display, the lightning bolts continued to go from my hands, through the machine, and down to the planet to the three men I could still see shaking and vibrating on the screen.
“They're DEAD!” Luxea yelled into my ear and I heard the fear in her voice. “DO YOU HEAR ME? THEY'RE DEAD!”
I took a deep breath and stopped pushing my Presence through the communications system. The communications display went black when the flow of Presence stopped, then I dropped to my knees, exhausted.
“She... she's dead.” I said, and tears formed in my eyes and poured down my face. “She's dead because of me.”
“She knew what she was doing.” Luxea said as she knelt and hugged me. “I think... I'm sure that she knew they were coming for her anyway.” She said. “Ohazith just made sure that her life was useful before she died.”
“T-transfer the... information to...” I pulled out my datapad from my pocket and dropped it, then I lost conciousness.
*
“Rus! What are you doing just sitting there?” Luxea asked. “Get us out of here!”
“Right!” Rus said and added a bunch more power to the engines. “Cassie, you've got two minutes to get me proper hyperspace jump coordinates.”
“Already done!” Cassie said and sent them to him.
“Luxea, get him into a jumpseat!” Rus said and worked the controls on the ship.
“I can do that.” Luxea said as she put Ullir's dropped datapad in her pocket and dragged a completely unconscious Ullir over to the small jumpseat at the side of the cockpit. “I think.”
“All hands! We're going to full acceleration in one minute! Strap in!” Rus said over the ship's speakers. Luxea barely managed to get Ullir strapped in and made it back to her seat just in time to strap in herself.
“Full burn!” Rus said as he pushed the levers forward and hit the button. The long haul ship's engines all lit up at the same time and propelled the ship out of the small moon's gravity well. “How... long until... Lagrange point?”
“At this... speed... ten minutes.” Cassie said as she looked at the navigation display. “If we had been... on the other side of the moon... it would have been... double that.” She said and hit the button to change the display to add other ships. “The Order ship is... changing course.”
“It doesn't matter!” Rus said and laughed. “We'll be in hyperspace long before they can get to us!”
“It's at times... like these... that I wish we had... a smaller ship.” Luxea said as she was pressed into her seat at nearly eight times her normal weight.
“Yeah.” Cassie said. “The ship's massive size... needs a lot more thrust to... get it moving so quickly.”
“That's half the fun!” Rus said and laughed. “You wouldn't even feel this in a little ship!”
“That's the point!” Luxea said, and Rus laughed some more.
*
I opened my eyes and felt weak as a freshly born kitten. “What... where...” I mumbled.
“You're in the medical bay.” Evelyn said and bent over me to look into my eyes. “What did you do to yourself?”
“I... I let...” I closed my eyes and lost consciousness again. When I woke up the next time, I felt much better.
“Hey, you.” Luxea said and touched my hand. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.” I said.
“I'm glad.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Three days.” Evelyn said and walked over to the bed. “I'm not sure why; but, you were close to dying and I couldn't figure out why.”
“It's because I used up nearly all of my Presence.” I said.
“Ha, you're funny.” Cassie said from the other side of the bed. “It's not possible to do that.”
“But...”
“She's right.” Evelyn said. “It's like when you lose a bunch of blood from a bleeding wound.”
“Um... you can die from that.” I said, and they both laughed.
“You just heal the wound and the blood comes back eventually, or you add some to speed up the process.” Evelyn said. “Problem solved.”
I opened my mouth to say that it wasn't that simple, then changed my mind. I wasn't a medical professional and it probably was that simple.
“What about The Order ship chasing us?” I asked instead.
“They didn't come close to catching us before we entered hyperspace.” Luxea said. “They didn't even enter long ranged weapons range.”
“Not that a fast courier ship could carry long ranged weapons.” Evelyn said. “It would tear the little thing apart if it tried to fire something like that.”
“What about...” I stopped talking because I had reminded myself about Ohazith and what happened to her. I felt around for my datapad that should have been in the leg pocket of my jumpsuit, and my hand met the bare skin of my thigh instead. “Why am I naked?”
“You still have underwear on.” Evelyn said, then she grinned at me. “Although, technically I'm supposed to remove all restrictive clothing when treating a patient.”
“The only thing underwear restricts is other people seeing me naked.” I said.
“Uh huh. Restrictive.” Evelyn chuckled and both Luxea and Cassie laughed.
“Where's my datapad?” I asked.
“You don't need to worry about that right now.” Evelyn said. “Just rest and concentrate on...”
I ignored her and sat up. When the thin blanket that covered me fell off, Cassie and Luxea gasped.
“Oh, Ullir.” Cassie said, sadness clear in her voice.
“What is it?” I asked and looked down at myself. I was surprised to see five jagged scars arrayed in a perfect circle on my left pectoral muscle. They were about two inches long and kind of looked like lightning bolts. If my guess was right, and I'd confirm it later by using my medical scan as a reference, it was right above where my heart was in my chest. It was like something had tried to dig my heart out of my chest, and as far as I knew, something really tried to. I rubbed my fingers over the scars and nodded when I felt that they were small bundles of thick scar tissue, like they had been there for a long time.
“I can't heal them.” Evelyn said. “I've tried a few different things and I even cut one off.”
“It grew back.” I said, and she nodded. “They feel... old.”
“It's like you've always had them, and yet I know you didn't have them before because of the medical scan I did.” Evelyn said. “I can't explain it.”
It means I need to be a bit more careful when using Presence like that. I thought, and was immediately saddened when I didn't hear Ohazith respond to my thoughts, because now she never would.
“It's all right.” Cassie said as she saw my face and her fingertips touched the scars alongside my fingertips. “Scars can sometimes make you look more manly.”
“He didn't really have a problem with that before.” Evelyn tried to joke.
“My datapad?” I asked, and Luxea dug my datapad out of her pocket. She handed it to me and Cassie removed her hand from my chest as I checked the datapad's log for recent information transfers.
“Yes, I looked through it.” Luxea said before I could ask her if she had looked through it. “I needed to know where to store the new data without messing up what you had on it already.”
I didn't respond as I nodded and found where she had put the information, then I looked at the ship manifests Ohazith had sent me. I scanned through the passenger pictures as quickly as my eye could handle it, then stopped about halfway through the second ship's records when I saw a face I recognized.
It was (Undecipherable)'s apprentice.
His hairstyle was different and he was definitely trying to hide his appearance; but, I would recognize his beady little eyes and sarcastic grin anywhere. With this picture, my search could be focused solely on the second ship's movements, because that was where I was sure (Undecipherable) was. I checked the rest of the pictures from all three ships, just in case, and didn't see him. I hadn't really expected to, either. If he was hiding his blue skin and horns, he could make himself look like anyone.
“Can I go to my sleeping compartment?” I asked Evelyn.
“If you're not going to stay here like I want you to, you might as well go there and rest instead.” Evelyn said in resignation.
“Thanks.” I said and stood up and walked over to the hatch.
“You can at least get dressed first.” Cassie said.
“I need a shower, so that's a waste of a clean jumpsuit.” I said and kept working on the datapad as I left the medical bay.
I felt the three of them follow me and I heard them catch their breath when I stepped off the deck into the central shaft and used a small amount of Presence to push myself down. I dropped down to the crew compartments and stopped at the shower level, turned myself around with another small amount of Presence, then stepped onto the deck without looking up from the datapad. I covered it in Presence and made it solid to protect it from the soap and water, took a shower and dried off, then walked out into the central shaft and floated across to the hallway with my sleeping compartment. I absorbed the solid Presence around the datapad and grabbed new underwear and a jumpsuit from the hallway closet.
I quickly got dressed and entered my sleeping compartment, then worked on all of the new data that I had and mixed it with the data I already had. I wasn't surprised that nearly all of it pointed to the Granis System and its huge tourist attraction. It was also a hub for illegal trade and moving goods that The Order didn't want moved without their permission. I smiled when I read what one of the items was.
Presence focusing crystals.
Thank you, Ohazith. I thought and put the datapad down and covered it in solid Presence. You've given me my first solid lead to tracking down the bastards that killed my parents.
I rolled over on my bunk, put my hand over my heart, and caressed the scars that would let me remember Ohazith for as long as I lived.