After an additional four hours of dreamless sleep, Morrigan woke to the chime of her doorbell. The heavy foot falls of Xol striding out of the room faded before she could even open her eyes.

As she sat up, Xol stepped back in the door of the bedroom as the rest of the Marmuro’k stirred awake. “Adminisstratorr, Mirina Sor,” he said as he peered over his shoulder.

Morrigan let out a squeaky yawn as she nodded. “Thank you Xol. She's here to show me around… well, I guess show all of us around, I don't know if you were given the layout of the Void Star or not last night,” she stated in lieu of asking.

Xol bore his fangs with a shake of his head. The mannerism was a bit confusing to her but she took it as a no. Xol barked a command she was not awake enough to catch but the rest of his clan began to file out of the room as she threw the blanket off her and stood up, though Yekku let out a squawking protest despite following what ever the order was.

“Dressss,” Xol hissed out before shutting the door as gentle as his large frame allowed him to.

Morrigan’s cheeks burned at the amount of respect to her privacy Xol cared for as she moved to a closet that was built out from the wall.

I don't see what the big deal is, pretty sure these lizards don’t view humans sexually, Apollyon quipped.

Morrigan snorted as she opened the closet to find varying sizes of uniforms colored in a dark olive or earthy green.

“Morning to you too, Apollyon,” she snickered, “It has nothing to do with sexuality though, I think Xol picked up quickly that Terran women like their privacy… well, at least that I do anyways. It’s sweet that he took it into consideration,” she said with a smile.

Her head pain was reduced to a subtle dull throb and her body felt like it had a modicum of energy to it.

I guess… you know, next time you plan to binge drink I can just flush the toxins from your body so you don't wake up with a hang over next time, right?

Morrigan glared at the uniform she held in her hands, “Seriously? Why the hell didn't you say something sooner?”

Eh, for all I knew you were looking forward to the pain. I’ve listened to humans give themselves hang overs for millenia.

“You’re literally in my head!” Morrigan growled as she tossed the uniform on the bed.

Hahahahaha yeahhh, that I am, Apollyon said in a sinisterly cheeky tone.

With a defeated sigh, she moved over to the dresser behind her and opened the drawers to find the common necessities one would need to dress, including men’s underwear.

“I guess they didn’t plan on guessing the gender of a new member huh?” she murmured before grabbing the rest of her attire. She even found a brush and hair ties within one of the smaller drawers, sitting beside a small standing mirror.

Don’t tell me you’re getting sold on cheap novelties like this, I raised you better than that!

Morrigan snorted into a giggle, “First of all, no I’m not and second, you didn’t raise me.”

Saved your life, raised you, what’s the difference? Apollyon grumbled in good humor.

That drew a laugh out of her as she tore at the multitude of knots in her hair with the brush she found.

You know, its entirely possible a shower might help with that, as fun as it is to watch you try and scalp yourself,

“Oh, a shower sounds like heaven!” she groaned wistfully as she stood up.

I’m pretty sure your idea of heaven is in between the legs of that pretty little…

“Shut up!” Morrigan exclaimed with burning cheeks, nearly shouting.

Hey, I’m just saying…

“Apollyon so help me, I will come in there and stuff you into the deepest darkest recess of my mind!” Morrigan cut Apollyon off again bitterly as her heart fluttered and the beet red sensation of her face rose even higher.

Alright-alright, geez. Excuse a guy for havin’ a little fun, Apollyon retorted aloofly, obviously not taking her seriously.

She took a moment to take a deep breath and let her face return to its normal color before stepping out of the room to find a beautiful petite redheaded woman standing in front of the door to the tiny apartment.

Well, what do you know, Apollyon quipped causing Morrigan to blush once again.

To her luck, the woman was too busy gawking awkwardly at the four Marmuro’k around the living space to notice, though Xol turned with a cocked head and gave her a curious look.

Realizing Morrigan standing there, the woman looked at the disheveled mess of her appointee and took a step towards Morrigan with her hand out. Xol let out a warning hiss that drew everyone’s attention, especially the woman's.

Morrigan chuckled and waved her worries away, “You'll have to forgive Xol, he is rather protective of me.”

The Xol snorted and continued to watch the woman as Morrigan accepted the woman's hand.

“I see, my names Emily, I'll be showing you around today. It’s nice to properly meet you this time Ms. Clarke,” she chuckled before giving her a genuine smile.

Morrigan cocked her head, “We met before?”

Emily giggled, “Yes, last night, well this morning technically. I’m the one who showed you were you'll be staying,” she said gesturing to the room.

Morrigan pursed her lips and shook her head, “I'm sorry, the only person I remember last night was Dora… I was really drunk,” she said in embarrassment.

Emily waved that off, “No worries, were you unable to find a uniform that fit you? That happens on occasion around here.”

Morrigan shifted on her feet in even more embarrassment, “Oh no, I did but I umm… severally need a shower… I apologize for not being ready.”

Emily smiled and set her data-slate on the counter that sat across from a small kitchenette. “No need to worry about that, take your time. The Lord Inquisitor knows the first few days are always the hardest. Take a shower, eat, we had the fridge stocked last night before you arrived. When you’re ready we can move forward with the tour.”

At the notion of food, both Yekku and Qiote perked their heads up from trying to get the holo-screen to work. Qiote swiftly stalked into the kitchen and opened the fridge with a delighted chirp while Yekku stealthily moved close to the new woman in the room, stooping low to meet the woman at her four-foot ten height.

“Oh! Um, hi,” Emily chirped out nervously as her gaze danced between Morrigan and the S’randin invading her space.

Yekku thrust his hand close to her and bobbed his head at it with a clicking sound that ended in a chirp.

“I’m sorry… but do you know what it’s saying?” she asked warily.

Morrigan laughed lightheartedly, “I couldn’t tell you. Xol hasn’t told me the secret to the S’randin language. Though I believe Yekku is trying to greet you with a handshake.”

Yekku bobbed his head spastically and thrust his hand forward three more times to drive the point home, his forked tongue flickering from his mouth patiently.

Emily looked at the group she was surrounded by in disbelief before carefully placing her hand in the large lizard humanoid’s four fingered hand.

Yekku gently yet rapidly shook Emily’s hand with a triumphant warble before placing her hand on top of his head.

Morrigan could not keep from laughing at the exchange, “He also likes head pets, this much I know!”

Emily’s eyes bespoke of wonderment as she gently stroked her hand along Yekku’s head and down his frill, letting out a chuckle of disbelief, “Hi there Yekku,” she spoke softly in adoration.

Yekku pulled his head out of her grasp and let out a long string of clicking and warble as he pointed to Qiote, who had currently been chomping down on a raw egg.

Emily gave her a wide-eyed look which made Morrigan giggle, “Xol? Care to elaborate?”

Xol let out an indignant huff, “sayss, you coo’k foood. Question.”

Morrigan smiled as Emily quirked her eyebrow, “I believe Yekku is asking if you’re able to cook.”

Yekku nodded in his usual spastic motion with wide hopeful eyes as he stared intently at Emily. She pursed her lips doing her best not to laugh but failed at the attempt. She laughed heartily as Yekku continued to stare her down.

“Are all Saurian this adorable?!” she inquired between giggles.

Despite Xol and Hî’tet hissing their displeasure, Yekku chirped at Xol defensively as he tried to shoo him away, animatedly pointing to Emily and warbling an argument.

Looks like she’s giving you the run for your money in the admiration department, Apollyon observed.

Morrigan merely smiled at the craziness, “Honestly, it’s like herding cats when it comes to them, if she wants to help then by all means,” she thought back before returning her attention back to Emily, “Mostly Yekku though Qiote can be equally as adorable,” she pointed at the S’randin raiding the fridge. “Xol is the broody brute obviously and Hî’tet is wonderfully loyal though he tends to keep to himself,” she finished gesturing to the blue-green Kêzi’kân sitting in the middle of the floor.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Oh, and do refrain from calling them Saurian, they dislike the name. Their true species name is Marmuro’k, Xol and Hî’tet are known as Kêzi’kân and Yekku and Qiote are both S’randin,” Morrigan added.

Emily smiled widely as she noticed Yekku had gone back to staring her down awaiting an answer. “I’ll make a note of it and distribute it throughout the Void Star, wouldn’t want anyone upsetting our adorable guests,” she said with a chuckle before tapping quickly into her data-slate. “I think I’ll run to the store and get better food, is there something they prefer?”

Before Morrigan could protest and tell her she did not have to do that, Xol cut her off.

“Meat,” he stated firmly.

Morrigan deflated and shrugged, “My guess is they have an omnivorous diet heavily leaning towards proteins…”

Emily nodded and smiled at Yekku, “I’ll go get more food and then I’ll cook some of it, we can even put it on the Lord Inquisitor’s tab.”

Morrigan's eyes went wide. The last thing she wanted to do was irritate the man who rescue her, it was bad enough she probably left him an outstanding bar bill.

Yekku raised his arms and bounced on his feet warbling a triumphant cheer before shifting over to Qiote with precision and pushing the munching S’randin away from the fridge, chattering animatedly.

Qiote poked his head out from underneath the counter and stared at Emily, giving her the same wide-eyed look Yekku gave her and chirped shyly before sinking back below line of sight.

The redheaded woman smiled brightly before looking at Morrigan, “Do you think they understand Terran enough to listen to me if they would like to come with?”

Morrigan cocked her head at the question, mulling it over as she glanced over at the two squawking S’randin that chatted with each other.

“Yekku, Qiote,” she called to them firmly. Both S’randin looked at their Mirina Sor with wide eyes as if they were in trouble. She smiled at both of them.

“Do either of you want to go with Emily here to go get more food so she can make you something to eat?”

Yekku snapped his attention to Emily, nodding and chirping excitedly while Qiote peered around the counter and retreated quickly when she gave him a small, kind wave.

Morrigan forgot Qiote carried the same clan name as Huruk, the S’randin that lost his life in a fight against Nora. Morrigan frowned at that realization, “Is he leery of humans because of that? Was he afraid of Nora? I’ll have to speak with Xol and Qiote about that…” she thought to herself.

It’s not so much fear, more of a wariness. The lizard doesn’t seem afraid when your pretty little blonde is around but there is a tentative trust between those two, Apollyon interjected.

She hummed to herself thoughtfully. It was still a conversation she wanted to have. “It’s okay Qiote, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” she said sweetly to the hiding S’randin.

He looked at her with a soft croaking sound and shoved another egg into his maw, crunching down on the shell.

Morrigan snort with a smile and turned her focus to Yekku. “Yekku, come here.”

Yekku edged closer to Morrigan bashful as he looked between Emily and Morrigan, nervous, excited energy fidgeting through his features.

Morrigan gently took his face into her hands so he would focus as she spoke to him, “Yekku, if you want to go with Emily, you gotta promise you’ll listen to her when she says something or gives you instructions, okay? Nod if you promise.”

Yekku wasted no time bobbing his head in her hands before flicking his tongue across her nose. She chuckled and released him. Yekku slipped swiftly between Emily and Xol and threw the door open, darting into the street only to squawk and warble in impatient excitement.

Morrigan and Emily both laughed at that Yekku’s excitement while Xol snorted and shook his head.

“Alright, we’ll be back soon, we’ll head out after we eat. That sound good, Ms. Clarke?” Emily planned out.

Morrigan smiled and nodded, “Beware, he’s kinda like herding cats. Oh! And please, call me Mori.”

Emily smiled sweetly, “Okay Mori, see you soon.”

As she watched the mad silly S’randin and the redhead leave her apartment, she leaned against the wall and let out an exasperated sigh. “What a life we live now huh?” she huffed at Xol who gave her a thoughtful hum.

Morrigan made sure to set up the holo-screen for the Marmuro’k and showing Hî’tet and Qiote how to use the remote before slipping into the bathroom to finally shower.

ΩΩΩ

The tension in Morrigan fled her body with the hot water that cascaded down her curves. It had been two years since the last time she had a proper shower, much less had the ability to shave or wash the collected grime from her hair.

Rinsing the conditioner from her hair for a third time, she let out a long needed sigh of relief as the water ran its course through her hair and trailed down her back.

“You have no idea how much I needed this…” she murmured aloud.

Hehehe, I'm pretty sure I did. Which is why I brought it up, Apollyon mused.

Morrigan closed her eyes and smiled feeling the water’s heat infuse her bones. She rubbed her arms and recalled her surprise at the sight of just how far the markings along her collar bone had spread.

The “tattoo” resulting in harboring Apollyon within her body grew over her shoulders and down half of her back, as well as spreading down to her elbow, which had been more of a surprise seeing as when Nora pointed it out it had only gone as far as her biceps.

The marking itself had went from a simply yet elegant geometric pattern to flourishing into an intricate combination of fluid, geometric tribalism in design that remotely mirrored ancient designs of old world tattoos two or three thousand years ago.

“This marking… it is going to cover my entire body isn't it?” she asked with uncertainty.

Meh, probably. It grows the more attune you become to my energy. So if you live long enough and perfect the balance between your body and my energy? I’d say it will.

“How do you not know?” Morrigan asked incredulously as she inspected her left arm tenderly.

Well, you remember that conversation we had about emotional wave lengths? You know, before you went all happy crazy and got attacked by the worm?

Morrigan's heart stung at the reminder.

Far be it from me trying; you're the first human to fully harbor my concentrated energy. The few others who stumbled upon me and accepted my offer over the millenia… well, the easiest way to put it is the concentrated destructive energy tore their existence apart…

Morrigan's eyes went wide in shock as her anger spiked in her core. “Are you telling me I could have died?!” she growled lowly.

I mean… the possibility was there… to be fair though, you were on the verge of dying anyways… Apollyon noted sheepishly.

Morrigan groaned at she ran the brush she brought in with her through her hair, aggressively tearing knots out, “You're such an asshole!”

Listen, it took me a long time to figure out the whole emotional wavelength thing. That, and with a little trial and error, I realized what was missing from the equation. Does it make me a bad guy? Sure, but when you dropped into that hole, I could feel how good the chances were. How do you think I knew about you?

Morrigan froze in place as the question processed through her brain. Something about the question caused worry to root itself in the back of her mind.

“What are you saying?” she asked tentatively.

Apollyon sighed, I’m saying, whether it was some genetic evolution with you, or just a random happen stance, but the moment you felt the unbridled rage- that ever-consuming fire in your soul, you became a beacon to my power as well as my attention. As far as I could guess, a perfect matching emotional wavelength needed to naturally harness and hold the primordial power of death...

Morrigan’s breath shuddered at the thought. She was unsure how she felt about the concept of being in sync with death or how she should feel about it.

“But… if that's true, how come I wasn’t able to use the power before meeting you?” She asked in confusion.

Oh I have no doubt that you would've been able to within a decade or two. As luck would have it, for the both of us, you agreed to take in the entirety of the concentrated form of my “spirit”, as you would call it. That essence acted like a seed planted in fertile soil, you, and now its beginning to sprout. That's how I understand it at least… Apollyon noted with a touch of its own uncertainty.

“So, what you're telling me is that on top of saving me and releasing you from your prison within the Earth, our agreement kick started my ability to… synchronize with your cosmic ambient energy?”

Basically, though kick starting is a bit of an understatement.

Morrigan sighed, debating on whether she was happy about that revelation or disturbed by it. She also had no idea what it truly meant for her in the long run and from the sound of it, neither did Apollyon.

“Okay, one more question… is this going to kill me?” she pushed out.

Apollyon have her a thoughtful hum, Hmmm no, it won't kill you. If anything you may live a bit longer seeing as you have me to repair your body and organs however, your cellular growth is no different than before so you're aging the way you should be. You'll still get old and eventually die of old age if you're careful enough not to get yourself blown apart or get your head lopped off.

Morrigan let out a sigh of relief and nodded as she shut the water off. She dried herself off, strung up her longer hair into a ponytail and dressed herself in her new pants and an dark blue undershirt paired to go underneath the olive drab dress coat she had no desire in wearing.

All in all, she felt like a brand new woman.

She stepped out of the bathroom and walked into a chaos of shrill warbling and hysterical laughter coming from Emily.

“Took your sweet time!” Emily beamed as stood next to Yekku who appeared to be cooking a pan brimming with scrambled eggs.

Morrigan sheepishly smiled before watching Yekku turn his head and prattle with excitement, lifting the pan off the stove in an attempt to show Morrigan what he was doing and sending the mostly cooked eggs spewing over the counter next to him.

Morrigan bit her lip hard to keep from laughing though Emily lost herself in loud hearty laughter. Even Xol let out a deep hissing laugh as he stood watching the kitchen chaos.

Yekku hung his head dramatically and let out a low clicking noise of utter defeat.

Morrigan puffed out her lip at the adorable display, “Oh buddy…” she cooed.

Emily touched Yekku’s arm and directed him to the stove, “It’s okay Yekku we have plenty more, just put the pan on the stove and pour this here,” she said indicating a massive bowl of blended egg.

All the while Qiote was singularly focused on a pan of hash browns he was gently nudging with a spatula.

Morrigan strode over to the counter and began spooning the mess into a pile with her bare hand, “I am so surprised I didn't hear any of this craziness…”

Emily directed Yekku with specific instructions again about keeping the pan on the stove before throwing a cursory glance at Morrigan, “Well you do clean up nicely, its been a fun time while we waited,” she said smiling.

Morrigan blushed at the compliment before finding the garbage can to push the spilled food into.

“Coffee?” the redhead asked holding up a half filled pot.

“Yes, definitely!” Morrigan exclaimed before giggling as she watched Yekku crouch low to study the cooking eggs with intense focus.

Morrigan found the food to be quite good albeit messy. As they ate, Morrigan explained what she knew about the Marmuro’k language with the input of Xol, and how the intricacies of pronouncing certain constants worked or the lack of.

Emily absorbed the information like a sponge as she added everything told to her into her data-slate, she intended on writing up both a report as well as a missive to be broadcast to everyone on the Void Star so more respect could be shown to the four new Marmuro’k roaming the hive world.

Xol was determined to follow Morrigan around on the tour, which did not seem to bother Emily at all as they went to leave, leaving Hî’tet in charge of the two rambunctious S’randin.

“First, we need to head to the Cathedral. The Lord Inquisitor is awaiting your arrival to go over the specifics of your training,” Emily stated as she handed Morrigan her data-slate.

“Why didn’t you mention he was waiting?” Morrigan asked in surprise as she took the device in her hands.

Emily chuckled and placed her hand on Morrigan’s shoulder, “You can relax, I did not mean literally. He’s constantly busy with running the Void Star, coordinating with the other Inquisitors and handling political matters.”

Morrigan hummed with uncertainty before looking at the screen, “What’s this?”

Emily leaned over and tapped on the screen bringing up an array of detailed images of the Void Star.

“Your first lesson is to try and memorize as much as possible from the diagrams here, each screen gives you information about the many zones and districts throughout the Void Star as well as the under hive,” the woman stated.

Morrigan took a close look at the screen while letting Emily direct her throughout the streets of the military district.

The Void Star was a hive world comprised of 6 sections both laterally and vertically. The main level of the world was built in the shadow of a five-pointed star, each point designated: Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta and Echo Zone.

Starting in the middle of the star shape sat the Cathedral as well as the small number of administrative buildings around it. Branching out in a circular pattern were the military districts on each of the five points’ conjoining areas, followed by the market districts, civilian districts, the docks, all fanning out to the very tips of the points that held the world’s gargantuan anti-starship cannons.

From a vertical perspective, starting at the top with the main level of the world she stood on, one level below was the manufacturing level followed by engineering, waste management, and other little levels that kept the hive world in running order.

The complexity of the world left Morrigan feeling small as she absorbed the magnitude of ingenuity the Inquisition operated from. Her new world was a marvel and she was now on the path to becoming a leader of such complex machination.