Thomas had only been at this party for a few minutes, and he already missed his mountain cabin on Reject-843, where the only minds he encountered were those of Azhdarchidae and the indigenous wildlife.

Animals did not expect great things of him. Animals did not worship him, or hate him, or have overcomplicated thoughts about him, or snub him for being who he was. Animals were nice.

He tried not to admire Cherise in her vibrant dress. She was too vivacious, too wholesome, and frankly, too normal, to be with a super-genius. Thomas was glad that she hadn’t seen him yet. With luck, he would officiate this wedding and then ask Ariock to teleport him away before anyone else could talk him into … well, anything.

“Thomas, where have you been hiding all these weeks?” a familiar voice asked near his elbow.

He was so absorbed in avoiding Cherise, he had failed to notice the sparkly headdress angling towards him. How embarrassing.

“I’m enjoying my retirement,” Thomas told Kessa.

Kessa radiated a sense of hurt, as if she had been abandoned. “I miss you.”

Only Kessa would miss him. Thomas suspected that everyone else in the universe had thrown a celebration upon hearing that he was retired and gone forever.

Even Cherise must be relieved, if only on a subconscious level. She was free to date normal men, or normal teenage boys, without feeling a lingering sense of guilt. Thomas simply lacked the fortitude to pretend to be normal. He just couldn’t do it. His mind was so far outside the range of normalcy, he might as well inhabit a different galaxy.

Like Mondoyo.

Mondoyo had tried to fit in. He had written music and poetry. He had tried to act like an average lab technician, like a friend, not creepy or weird at all.

It hadn’t mattered.

Everyone knew what he was. No one would ever treat a super-genius like an average person. It was impossible.

“You don’t need me any more,” Thomas assured Kessa. “You’re handling everything just fine.” He nodded in approval at her headdress. “I can’t think of a better person for the job.”

“I did not expect you to walk away from everything,” Kessa said. “You and Ariock. There are still penitent uprisings all over the galaxy. They are not all afraid of our space fleets.”

Thomas waved that away. “They’ll settle down. You’ve got this.”

“There are separatist groups that wish to reinstate the Torth Empire.” Kessa stood with her back to the pavilion, ignoring the mingling and laughter of wedding guests. “They find the slightest excuse for bitterness towards our government and then they overreact. There are breakaway militias recruiting people. I am not entirely suited to deal with freed people who now wish to establish their own tyrannical nations.”

Thomas nodded, acknowledging the irony of former slaves who wanted to steal other people’s liberty. “They’ll never become a majority,” he assured her. “As long as wise leaders are in charge, they’re just gnats. You don’t need me or Ariock.”

Kessa radiated a bristly feeling. It seemed she could hardly believe his lack of concern. “The peace council can use your advice for many reasons. The superluminal network—”

“Varktezo will make sure it’s rebuilt,” Thomas cut in. “And you have help from teleporters plus human augmenters. You really don’t need me. Or Ariock.”

He hoped he was right about that. Some societal problems were difficult even for a super-genius to solve. Telepathy gas, for instance, facilitated linking between humans and Yeresunsa, and it would grow in popularity for that reason alone. Consequences spun through Thomas’s mind in an ever-increasing web. Telepathy was a multifaceted problem.

“You took off our collars.” Kessa indicated her neck scar. “You gave us access to technology. You handed us the means to learn as fast as gods.”

Thomas hadn’t done those things alone, yet he did not correct her. She was angling towards a point.

“We are like children,” Kessa said, “learning how to run for the first time. You set us loose in a universe that has roads, but that also has cliffs and pitfalls. We were starving, and you just unshackled us and gave us an unlimited feast. And now you want to step back and see what mistakes we make?”

That was unfair. Thomas straightened, glaring at her. He had not retired as a way to mock former slaves.

“A civilization that has to rely on a super-genius,” he said, “isn’t healthy. And it isn’t sustainable. You don’t need me. At all.”

Thomas sensed that Kessa knew that. She was not begging for him to return to work. She was here because—

“Thomas?” The voice was incredulous. “No way.”

“Cherise said it’s him.” That whisper sounded dubious.

“Nah. It can’t be him.”

Thomas turned to see his foster family.

Their mental patterns were jarringly human. He had never expected to talk to these particular humans again, although he should have guessed that Vy would invite the whole family.

Mrs. Hollander’s astonished gaze traveled down his legs.

“It’s really me,” Thomas admitted.

The group of humans quieted with shock.

“It was a magical cure, sort of.” Thomas wished he had disguised himself just to avoid this awkward reunion with his foster family.

Mrs. Hollander looked amazed. “The aliens can reverse spinal muscular atrophy?”

“Uh, they’re making progress on it.” He wasn’t going to dive into a long explanation about what Evenjos had been capable of doing. Evenjos was dead and gone, according to both Vy and Ariock. Anyhow, Thomas had bequeathed a scientific foundation with funding and informational databanks so that Varktezo and other alien scientists could improve upon NAI-13 and other medicines.

Mrs. Hollander surprised Thomas by enfolding him in a hug. He squeaked.

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“I’m just so glad you’re okay,” she said. “I was afraid you were dead.”

To Thomas’s shock, she radiated sincerity.

He had been nothing but a self-absorbed cretin. He used to figure that his foster mother’s care was impersonal. She loved everyone. But now it seemed she had genuinely missed him, and not solely because he had been her personal financial advisor. She had actually missed his personality.

Well. That was mysterious. And surprising.

“Uh…” Unsure how to react, Thomas tentatively hugged her back. He had urged Ariock to prioritize saving Earth during the Death Architect’s doomsday attack. Maybe this was why. “I’m glad you’re safe and well,” he said.

The other kids jostled closer, eager to learn about what Thomas had been up to. It seemed they had received tantalizing answers from Cherise.

“Is that really your dragon?” Ramón jabbed a finger skyward.

“He’s more like a pterosaur,” Thomas said. “His name is Azhdarchidae.”

“Did it hurt, when you got healed?” Miranda still had trouble believing it. “That alien over there—” she pointed to Gralet— “says you can read minds. Is that how you always knew what I was thinking?”

Thomas shrugged. He wasn’t going to dive into explanations.

Rochelle pushed closer. “Everyone seems kind of in awe of you. They say you freed a lot of slaves? And you took over a galactic empire? Are they serious?”

“It’s a long story.” Thomas spoke in a bored tone that invited nothing more.

But they kept asking questions.

Kessa waited on the periphery, her beak twisted in frustration. She was too small to elbow humans aside. Someone else engaged her in conversation, and she went with it.

Cherise was also on the periphery, chatting with alien guests. Every once in a while she shot an amused grin at Thomas.

He tried to interpret what was going through her mind. Why had she pointed the Hollander family his way? Was it some sort of vengeance for his abrupt decision to retire?

He had visited her in secret before he left. “I’m not fit to be around people,” he had said.

And Cherise had replied that she was okay with his absence. Hadn’t she? “I’ll miss you. But do what you need to do.”

She wasn’t going to pine away waiting for him to return. Thomas knew Cherise well enough to know that. She had multiple projects, and she would pursue those rather than pursuing any particular person. Her inner strength was one of her most admirable traits.

“Can we move away from Earth, like you did?” one of his foster siblings asked.

“Yeah!” another kid said, excited. “Can we live here?”

Thomas was grateful for a question that did not involve him. “You’ll have to ask Vy. That would be her decision.”

“Why Vy?”

“Where is she?”

A gigantic shadow fell over his foster family.

They all turned, and in that instant, their attention peeled off of Thomas and onto Ariock. The ten-foot-tall groom was much more attention-grabbing than any of his wedding guests. Ariock wore a double-breasted sherwani, with a broad belt and galactic embroidery. He didn’t need armor to look impressive and imposing.

The kids gaped.

“I’m the groom,” Ariock said with a smile. “I’ll be marrying your sister.”

The gaping kids emanated fearful uncertainty.

“Oh, hi Ariock!” Mrs. Hollander had clearly met him before. Even so, it took more than a few meetings for anyone to get used to seeing Ariock up close. “Um, everyone, this is Ariock Dovanack.”

Vy’s voice came from somewhere to Ariock’s right. “Yup, he’s going to be my husband! And your uncle!”

The crowd shifted, and there was the radiant bride. In person, Vy looked more … unearthly … than Thomas remembered. He assessed her, wondering what secret she and Ariock were keeping. He had picked up a hint of weirdness from Ariock earlier, when the big guy had teleported Thomas from his retirement wilderness to this wedding planet.

But Thomas really didn’t want the intimate details of his own foster sister’s sex life with a giant, so he had purposefully avoided Ariock’s thoughts and focused on the behavioral psychology of herd animals instead.

“We’re going to have the ceremony soon,” Vy told her family. “But I wanted you to meet Ariock first.”

She grabbed Ariock’s arm and tugged him, forcing him to lower himself to be closer to eye level. Usually, Ariock was oblivious when someone normal-sized tugged him, but the two of them must have worked on their unspoken agreements and mutual accommodations. He responded right away.

Her family had plenty of questions for the giant. Some of them were tactless. But Ariock took everything in stride. He explained that he had grown up in New Hampshire, that he had a growth disorder, and that yes, he was an alien-human hybrid, but he considered himself to be as human as Vy.

“We’re planning to travel a lot,” Ariock said, in response to a question. “But we’ll visit you on Earth. I promise.”

Vy sauntered up to Thomas with two filled champagne glasses. She offered him one.

“Cheers.” Vy clinked glasses with Thomas.

“Congratulations on your nuptials.” Thomas took a sip of nectar champagne.

“Thanks for being our officiant,” Vy said.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Thomas said.

Ariock’s deep voice was hard to tune out. “I want to be careful about visits to Earth,” he was saying. “Humankind will learn about the rest of the universe, but we think that should be a gradual process. I’d rather not attract a media storm.”

“Do you think it’s right for us to vanish from the public?” Vy asked Thomas. “I mean, Ariock definitely needs time off. But I do feel bad if we leave for some indeterminate amount of time.”

Thomas shrugged, hating how she had accidentally made him feel guilty about his own retirement. “News about the prophecy of the Lone Survivor leaked out. It must feel nice to have most of the universe think you’re dead.”

He privately puzzled over that prophecy. Try as he might, he didn’t understand how the oracle Ah Jun had made such a huge mistake at the very end of her prophetic sequence. He wasn’t a lone survivor. So why had Ah Jun misled everyone? Had it been necessary in order to ensure the exact sequence of events which led to their victory over the Death Architect? Perhaps everyone needed to believe that Ariock was doomed so that the Torth also believed it?

“I guess the prophecy was accurate,” Vy mused. “Sort of. I did die.”

Thomas stared at her.

“And so did Ariock,” she said.

Thomas dove into her mind, too curious to stop himself.

Oh.

Wow.

Thomas gaped at Vy, speechless with shock. He had never felt so unsettled.

This wasn’t Vy as he remembered her. This was a newly empowered Vy, with the glorious, indestructible body of a goddess. She could morph into a living planet. Or a blade of grass. She could shape-shift into any form. Her augmentation power could boost Ariock’s titanic strength to even more astronomical heights.

The couple did not yet know their own limitations and capabilities.

“Ah.” Thomas reassessed his foster sister. “I get why you retired, now.”

Vy nodded. Her thoughts reflected the truth he had already deduced. She wanted to fully master her powers before she dared to live among ordinary people. Ariock also wanted time to grow used to whatever augmented strength Vy gave him.

They were titans.

“We put off the wedding until we felt like we could hold it safely,” Vy murmured. “Without me glitching into a diffuse cloud of fog, or melting into a literal puddle of goo.” She glanced at Ariock, and the giant blushed.

Apparently the puddle of goo thing had happened more than once.

Thomas politely focused on a neurobiological analysis of the grazing habits of alien llamas.

“So here we are.” Vy grinned. “I practiced a ton.”

She probably meant that literally.

“Great.” Thomas sipped more champagne. Vy might actually be able to read his mind, since she could create her own telepathy gas.

Except Ariock would need to avoid entering such a zone with Vy. That would facilitate accidental linking, and that might make Ariock accidentally powerful enough to destroy a continent with a sneeze.

“I guess you’re not going to settle into a typical married lifestyle?” Thomas said.

“Right.” Vy sounded relieved that he understood. “We’re not going to become bureaucrats and hold swank dinner parties. I don’t think we should be around people for extended periods of time.”

That was wise. Their combined power put them on another level. They were beyond Yeresunsa. One minor quarrel, or even just a slip of concentration, and Vy or Ariock could wind up hurting a lot of people.

“If nothing else,” Vy went on, “we would become major assassination targets. Everyone close to us would be in danger.”

That, too.

People cheered for heroes like Ariock and Evenjos during a war, but the war was over. Nobody liked gross inequality. Power disparity—and all the envy and resentment that entailed—had led to the rise of the Torth Empire.

“Hm.” Thomas pretended to be interested in his champagne. “Planning to have any kids?”

“Grr.” Vy playfully punched his arm.

Thomas plucked the answer from her mind. She didn’t know if her malleable body was capable of pregnancy.

But she and Ariock wanted kids.

And since they were likely immortal and invincible, they had plenty of time to experiment. They were considering employing a surrogate mother.

Thomas sighed. He trusted Vy and he trusted Ariock, but any offspring they had would be a big question mark. A really huge question mark.

“It’s time for the ceremony!” Vy squealed.