Five minutes. Three-hundred seconds.
That's how long it took for Cassandra Shepard and Liara T'soni to go from enjoying a fun day out at the movies in Mindoir's capital of Landing City, to running for their lives as the world collapsed in on itself in fire and smoke and fear.
It had been intended to be nothing more than a fun day trip out in town. Her grandparents needed to do some shopping and there was a 21st Century Film Festival in the cinema complex in the colony capital, so why not do both at once? Enjoy the cinematic artwork of the previous century with the girl that they liked all day, then enjoy ice cream before heading home. An absolutely perfect outing that was definitely not a date, thank you, no matter what her grandparents implied!
…not to say that Liara wasn't the cutest girl she had ever met, super sweet, the smartest thing on two legs, and just the most adorable thing in the world when she started rambling about archaeological things that Cassie didn't understand but loved to hear her talk about. Because that was all totally true, and Cassie was more than happy to tell people as much, but that didn't meant that she had a thing for Liara!
So there they had been, hand in hand, strolling through the streets as they made their way from the shuttle station towards the merchant district, when the air defense sirens had started wailing and Mindoir Defense Command had announced that a pirate fleet was attacking.
That was when the screams had started, panic igniting across the city as people started running for shelter wherever they could find it. Few of them seemed to remember the existence of the emergency shelters, few in number though they might be, but her grandparents didn't. Honestly, if asked about it later, both girls would have admitted without reservation to being more than a little awed by how quickly and decisively the elderly couple reacted.
Each grabbing one of the teens (or teen-equivalents) by the hand, they had started running. Running not towards the center of the city, but towards the outskirts. It was only later, when it had been explained to them, that the girls understood why. That the elderly couple was wise enough to know that the shelters in the heart of the city would fill before they could reach them, and that the attackers would focus their attentions there as well.
Then things had gone from bad to worse, because what they had thought was a member of the Mindoir militia helping them get to safely had been a traitor, bought and paid for, that had instead taken them right to a group of pirates. Pirates that had killed her grandfather as he grappled with the faux-militiaman, and pirates that had died when her biotics (and what else could they be, even if they were a radiant gold-crimson instead of the typical black-blue?) showed themselves for the first time and burnt every attack save one, who Lia had shot with surprising accuracy. Or, perhaps, not so surprising given her father.
Terrified that any attempts to flee to the closest shelters would be met with another attack, her grandmother had led them in the opposite direction, gambling on the hope that they would have enough time to make it to safety. A gamble that had cost her grandmother her life, and Cassandra her freedom, because as a dogged pursuit finally caught up with them and tranquilizer darts bit deep and dispensed their payloads, Cassandra shoved her dearest friend into the shelter transport tube and activated it before obliterating the control panel with a flame-wreathed fist.
Her strength left her, then, leaving her to slump to the ground, flopping onto her side to stare with increasingly heavy eyes as a drell and an asari approached, their batarian and vorcha allies keeping an anxious distance. Both examined the control panel briefly, and she felt a thread of fear that her efforts might have failed, before something very much like smug amusement overtook it as the drell swore and punched the unyielding transport tube door.
"We were supposed to get both of them!" he hissed, glaring at the asari, but it was obvious that she wasn't particularly moved by that glare or the words that accompanied it.
"If you want to stay and try to breach the shelter, feel free. Of course, even if you do manage to do that, it will be you and a half-dozen other idiots trying to find one person amongst hundreds of pissed off humans. Maybe you'll even survive long enough to find her before the Alliance Navy arrives." She retorted contemptuously, before crouching down to examine Cassandra, checking her breathing as her world slid towards dark unconsciousness. "Hmph. She'll be fine. Get her onto the shuttle, I have no interest in us being here any longer. If the rest of them want to risk running for the Relay after reinforcements arrive, they're more than welcome to it. We're leaving."
The last thing that Cassandra was aware of was being scooped up in someone's arms and carried away, and the last thought that went through her mind wasn't one of fear, or dread, or hate…but satisfaction. She had saved her best friend, and that alone made everything worth it.
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The Pheonix Force looked down at the sleeping form of it's host from it's place outside the physical realm, contemplating the situation in which they had found themselves. The child had done well, sacrificing herself to protect her friend, without any thought of reward. Just as she had attempted to defend her family and the innocents that they had encountered in their attempt to reach safety.
Perhaps a measure of assistance could be rendered. The child was nearly an adult now, after all, so perhaps it was time to stop being a fond child-hood memory and introduce itself to her properly. Bobbing it's head to itself, it reached out with a tendril of it's power and pulled the child's soul into the White-Hot Room.
She appeared instantly, of course, fully aware of herself even if she didn't understand her surroundings. Even if her mind and body were currently unaware and unconscious, in this place she would always be just as awake and aware as any moment in the waking world. Souls, after all, did not sleep nor even grow tired.
The Force brushed against her mind, pressing the concept of [Greeting] into her, and radiated [Amusement] as she yelped and jumped, spinning around as she looked around herself rather wildly. Not that there was much to see, of course, the Room was a featureless void of white the majority of the time, and the imprints of all The Force's former hosts were elsewhere at the moment.
It wouldn't do to overwhelm the child, after all. Especially since so many of it's previous hosts greatly resembled the child and her mother. A thread of [Nostalgia] wound through the entity as it recalled something that had once been said by a version of it's most favored host, Jean Gray: "For something that doesn't know what sex, or attraction, or even emotions are, The Pheonix Force sure has a type…"
At the time she had been quite right, it hadn't understood anything of the sort, but in it's many rebirths since, it had come to conclude that Jean was quite right. It definitely had a preferred appearance and nature for it's hosts, and no small amount of that preference was due entirely to Jean herself.
Then the child spotted it, and The Force couldn't help but grimace in meta-physical discomfort at the shriek that the child let loose. It had, somehow, forgotten how loud mortal children could be, especially 'in person'.
The Force radiated [Greeting] again, with a sub-note of [Reassurance] and [Fondness] running beneath it, and the child's fear turned to a strange mixture of fascination, bemusement, and nervous curiosity as the comforting emotions soothed her. A reaction that likely would not have been quite so easy in the physical world, but here in a place of souls there was an instinctual recognition of [Truth].
"What…are you? And where am I?" the child breathed, eyes wide, and the Pheonix considered just how much information it wanted to share so early. The child deserved some, of course, that had already been established, but not all.
The Force answered, explaining what it was in the simplest terms that it could manage. A feat fortunately made easier by the same instinctual and spiritual understanding that had reassured the child not so very long ago. While it could speak any language, by dint of it's colossal awareness and it's ability to pluck such knowledge from any mind it saw fit, in matters such as this it very much preferred the surety of communicating via [Concepts]. Mortal methods of communication were so limited, after all, and prone to failing to convey the proper meanings at the most inconvenient times.
"So you're…a god?" the child asked slowly, and The Force considered this for a moment before demurring. It wasn't a god, per se, and certainly not equal to the God the child's family worshipped (The One-Above-All, it was sure), but it was more powerful than many of those beings worshipped by mortals. That being said, it was really nothing more than a concept of existence, a portion of Creation. It neither desired nor required worship, so no, it didn't think of itself as divine. The child absorbed that, staring up at it with wide eyes, before sighing and nodding slowly. "Okay, fine, not a god. Just an ancient entity that is older than time, has unfathomable power, and is apparently personally familiar with God Himself. Sure. Why not. And why are you in my head, exactly?"
The Pheonix, before replying, reflected on how quickly the child was 'bouncing back' and regaining her equilibrium. Many of her hosts had been similar, born with clever (and occasionally wicked) tongues. Then it explained why and how it had not only ended up in this parallel dimension, but within her soul. It also explained why it had revealed itself to her, and it was [Amused] to see the red that stained the child's cheeks at it's praise and affirmation of her decisions. As such, it would gift her with the knowledge to wield some of the lesser powers provided by it's bond with her. Some of which she had already made some thin use of, instinctually.
"So that's why I was so good at figuring other people out, figuring out what they wanted. That's how I figured out Miss Aethyta was Liara's dad too, isn't it?" the child mused, understanding the implications quickly, and The Force confirmed it. Not that she wasn't intuitive on her own, of course, it hastened to reassure her. She was amongst the most intelligent of it's hosts, but her nascent powers certainly gave her an edge. The child nodded again, running a hand through her hair as she thought, considering everything that it had told her. "Alright, so I have super-powers now. That's great, but how is that going to help me get out of this? Unless I can teleport between planets now?"
The Force told her that such a thing would likely be possible, given enough time, but she was too young to channel that much power just yet. To unpracticed as well, which meant she was far more likely to tear her body into its component molecules than anything else, and that was hardly a good plan. That being said, of course, she wasn't without options. Being able to peer within the mortal mind and understand their thoughts and desires and needs was a potent ability, especially when dealing with criminals, the greedy, or the devout. That was all the advice that The Force would offer, however, resolute in it's determination not to give the child too much at once.
The gimlet eye that The Force received from the child at it's reticence was amusing, though her excitement at it's subsequent offer to help her hone her ability while her body slumbered was equally endearing. They had many hours to go, after all, before the child could take it's next step into the future. Best to use the time wisely. Not to mention that, for all The Force intended for the child to earn access to it's full might, it had no interest in the child dying or suffering more than was needed to forge her into a legacy fit for it's previous hosts. To temper the child without shattering it was the goal, and it briefly wondered if it had the ability to do so properly before pushing the question aside. It had witnessed a thousand, thousand lifetimes from within it's hosts. Surely it had the breadth of knowledge required to properly ensure the child became what she needed to be.
If mortals could do it, how hard could it be?
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Tela Vasir had felt something very much like relief when they finally arrived in Anhur's orbit, for a myriad of reasons at that. Not least of which is because she didn't know how much longer she could handle the silent, watching, judging gaze of Cassandra Shepard, whom she had decided to keep restrained in her own quarters after the girl had nearly sweet-talked a particularly dim-witted (and now very, very dead) guard into opening the cargo bay cage that she had originally been in. The only reason she had failed was because Tela had dropped by to make sure that she was in good health.
Just what she had hoped to accomplish as a single child trapped inside of a small warship chock full of heavily armed pirates and a (disguised) Asari SPECTRE, Tela didn't know, but she could damn well admire the (what was that human word again? Ah, right.) chutzpah of the attempt…and, for that matter, how close she had come to succeeding. Though, given who had raised the kid (and she definitely counted T'soni and her bondmate in that) she wasn't all that surprised either by the attempt or the near-success.
Kid was probably going to end up on the Council someday, at this rate.
The weirdest thing, honestly, was how quiet she was. She hadn't talked much since being put under Tela's personal supervision, aside from some very pointed questions and making some very intuitive and uncomfortable accurate statements about the whole damn situation. Frankly, Tela was considering doing some remedial courses on controlling her body language, since the brat (the label, somehow, carried an affectionate note in her mind) had obviously picked up something from her reactions that had indicated that Tela was rather less-than-sure about this whole plan.
Goddess, to hell with the Council. If the kid followed her parents into the military, she'd recommend her for the SPECTREs personally. If she was this good at picking things up as a maiden, she'd make one hell of an investigator as a matron.
Making landfall came quickly after that, the pair of them boarding a shuttle that Tela herself had piloted down to the planet, and the walk to the rendezvous point after that had been a short one. With good reason. The last thing they needed was for some enterprising idiot to decide that getting his hands on a human might be worth trying to take her on.
Stepping into the small side-street market that was their objective, she scanned her surroundings carefully, nodding in approval as the turians she was looking for filtered out of the crowd. They were a bit rusty, but it was easy to tell that they had once been soldiers.
So began the song and dance of the transfer, which was going entirely as it ought to and in accordance with plans right up until it very abruptly wasn't.
"He's not here to take me home."
Tela blinked in surprise at the sudden interjection by the Shepard girl, her brow furrowing slightly as she and the turians all glanced together towards where the kid was standing, and she felt a shudder go through her soul as she recognized the look in Cassandra's eyes. The same look that had been worn every time the girl picked away at her during the journey.
"What do you mean, of course I am. I just said…" the contact started to refute, but she cut him off. Perhaps more accurately, she spoke right over him.
"He's not here to take me home. His name is Elanos Haliat and he hates my mom. He wants to punish her by hurting me, because he was at Shanxi and lost. He's furious that you didn't get Lia as well. He wants to hurt us and kill us and send the videos to our moms, before trying to kill them too." She informed Tela implacably, and there was something in the way that the group of Turian's moved after those words left her lips that caught Tela's attention. The way hands shifted near holstered weapons, the way their eyes darted to their surroundings, the way that their mandibles fluttered and clenched.
"Explain. I was promised that the girls wouldn't be harmed, that they would be returned to their parents." She asked tightly, deliberately not dropping her hand onto the holstered form of her own pistol, even as her biotics began to coil themselves just beneath her skin. "The Shadow Broker…"
"The Shadow Broker told you what you wanted to hear, Vasir. Did you really think that a group of Turian veterans from Shanxi loved humanity so much that they would fake a rescue mission just to get in those brutes' good books? Doesn't say much for the intelligence of the SPECTRE Corps." the contact sneered at her, tone mocking enough that she was tempted to simply shoot him and be done with it. "Of course, you were never supposed to know the truth, and I don't know how the little brat figured it out, but now you really only have one option don't you?"
"Oh? And what 'one option' do you think I have?" she ground out, and the condescending smirk that he gave her would have been more than enough to earn her ire, if he hadn't already done that twice-over.
"To give us the girl and move on, Vasir. You might be the Broker's pet SPECTRE, but you're out-numbered and you're on Anhur. Taking your payment and continuing to play the hero to soothe whatever guilt you feel is the only choice that gets you out of here alive." He responded, and Tela couldn't help but stare at him in something akin to shock. Oh, he might have a point about being stuck on Anhur, which wasn't a good thing under any circumstance that had her on any shitlist (something that would be even harder to deal with if the Broker had betrayed her, and it damn well seemed he had), but did he really think a couple dozen washed-up deserters and pirates were enough to take her out? "Make the smart play and give it up. Don't try to be a hero."
"…I was never a 'hero', Haliat. I've never been a 'hero' and I never will be, not really. I'm not a good person, even. Just a bad one trying to deal with worse problems. That being said…" Tela responded with a resigned sigh, shoulders slumping slightly. The turian grinned, eyes bright with cruel, savage delight and triumph. He opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was he intended to say was forever lost as the back of his head evaporated. As his subordinates reeled and shocked cries echoed from the oblivious bystanders in earshot, she smirked darkly at his collapsing corpse over the top of her drawn pistol as she let her biotics bloom out of her. "Hero or not, I'm still better than scum like you."
She stomped on the ground, black-blue energy exploding out from the point of contact like a tidal wave. The Nova wasn't her most powerful, by any stretch, given the less-than-ideal circumstances, but it was more than enough to knock them down, rendering them something approaching helpless. Six more gunshots rang out, each one piercing a criminal's head, before Tela holstered her overheating pistol, drew her shotgun, and looked at the fire-haired child.
"Come on, we're leaving." She barked, trying her damndest to ignore the way that she was looking her…or perhaps more accurately, ignoring the way it made her feel. In fact, she was going to ignore all of the emotions attached to this little fiasco for a decade or two if at all possible. Provided that they lived long enough to get off of this planet after all. Fortunately, she had a safe house on-world. They could head there for the time being. Hide until she could figure out how the hell she was going to get the two of them out of this god-forsaken situation.
They ran, adult asari and human child, shoving through the crowds and darting through alleyways. Here, Tela would grab bits and pieces of clothing from a vendor or two. There, an armor piece would be discarded. Anything that could be used to identify her was abandoned or replaced, until she looked unrecognizable. The only problem was, the presence of the kid made any attempts at blending in with the other asari on-planet futile. They could easily track her down by that alone, especially given the uniqueness that was Shepard. It wasn't like there were a lot of maiden-aged humans on Anhur, and she was willing to bet that any that did exist didn't bear features like Cassandra's.
Ducking into a ratty alleyway after nearly fifteen minutes of blind flight, she gave Shepard a moment to catch her breath as her mind raced for a solution to the situation that she had stupidly managed to get the two of them into. Most of the people she could call for help were either too far away to help, incapable of helping, or more likely to help the Broker in return. And that's even assuming that she could get a call out without it being traced!
A thought occurred and she swore vilely in three languages, even as she tore her omni-tool off and vaporized it with a small Warp. She couldn't trust anything that she had set-up ahead of time, including her safe-house. She wasn't naïve enough to believe that the Broker wasn't aware of all of it, and she definitely wasn't stupid enough to believe that he was going to be after her with whatever resources he could muster. Her only saving grace, quite frankly, was the fact that he couldn't afford to move too openly, lest he catch the ire of the rest of the SPECTRE Corps by making it known Tela Vasir was his target.
It was possible, of course, that he would try to put the word out that Tela Vasir had been behind the attack on Mindoir and the subsequent kidnapping, but all things being equal she considered it unlikely as a matter of course. Besides, it wasn't as if he was particularly known for giving out large amounts of information, even to his most frequent and favored (she would never imagine using the word 'trusted') operatives.
The idea that the Broker would drop this whole scheme just because his client was dead was discarded without further thought as impossible to the point of hilarity.
All that being true, then, she had no idea what to do from here. Within a few hours, this entire planet was going to be looking to serve her head up on a fucking platter. Even what passed for law enforcement on this fucking planet wasn't going to be of any help, they were all in the pockets of the corrupt corpos, and to the mercs she was just another contract, so what could she…
Hmm.
Well now, that could be an idea, couldn't it?
"We need credits and we need to find an extra-net terminal." She announced suddenly, running a hand over her head tentacles as she continued planning at a rapid pace, possibilities being considered and either discarded, modified, or approved with the sort of trained, experienced speed that would leave a civilian dizzy. Eying Shepard thoughtfully, she added. "And we need a way to disguise you too. You're tall enough you could probably pass for a maiden, if we put you in armor."
She sighed, running a hand over her head again.
"Come on, kid. We've got work to do."
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Aethyta smirked against her beloved's throat at the soft moan that sprang from Benezia's lips as her fingers stroke the T'soni matriarch's fringe just right, nipping lightly at the pale blue skin of her smooth throat, her free hand slowly stroking it's way towards Benezia's waist…and the door to their bedroom burst open to reveal Benezia's favorite acolyte, Shiala, standing there and breathing heavily.
"Shiala, I swear by the Goddess Herself…" Aethyta started to growl, turning her attention away from her lover with a thunderous scowl on her face (one that, she was somewhat gratified to see, Benezia shared) that promised some manner of highly-unpleasant but survivable retribution for the girl, but Shiala cut her off. Something that would typically only make things worse by any measure, but her words were more than enough to wipe her sins away.
"I'm sorry, Matriarchs, but Hannah Shepard is on the comm, it's urgent. There…it's…Mindoir has been attacked, by slavers. It's bad. The girls…"
The initial words, the invocation of Hannah Shepard's name and the word 'urgent' would have been plenty sufficient to get both women's attention. The rest of it had them throwing shame and propriety out the window as they nearly leapt from their bed, pulling only the meanest of garments on before rushing down the hall to Benezia's office/study and it's waiting communication station.
"Hannah, what happened?" Benezia asked the moment she was within range of the audio pickups, not even bothering to sit down before speaking, and the image of her human friend looked at her with red-rimmed, darkly-circled eyes.
"Thirty ships launched an all-out attack on Mindoir. The defenses weren't strong enough to so much as slow them down, never mind stop them, and they had boots on the ground before most of the citizenry could make it into shelters. Eighth Fleet responded to their Case Zulu, but we arrived nearly three hours after the attack began." Hannah responded dully, sounding very much like she was listing factoids from an after-action report. Which probably wasn't far off the case, in all honesty.
"Goddess, Hannah, I'm sorry. I'll have my people start working on relief efforts immediately." Benezia breathed, a glance at Shiala showing that her acolyte was already on her omni-tool, passing orders to the rest of those loyal to House T'soni.
"Benezia…" Hannah's soft, almost broken voice drew her attention, and an instinctual knowledge came upon her at the look on the human's face. The knowledge that the worst was yet to come, and she felt ice trickling down her spine, her body chilling and heart throbbing. "Benezia, the attack…Faolan's parents had taken the girls into the city for a date at the movies. They were still there when the attack hit. Cathair and Siobhan are dead."
It wasn't trickling down her spine any longer, but a pool that she was bathing in, and as much as she wanted to weep for her friend and the lovely couple she had so briefly known (as much as she would weep, when she was able), in her heart she had only fear for her daughter and Cassandra…and, though it shamed her, more so for Liara than Cassie. That was something she would need to meditate upon, in the future, she decided with a pulse of fierce self-castigation, before pushing it aside as Hannah spoke again.
"You don't need to worry about Liara, she's fine. She's down in the med bay now, getting checked out, with some of my best door-kickers just outside, but…" the human seemed to see the fear on her face and hastened to assure her, before faltering and falling silent, and Benezia's shame blossomed greater still as a horrible understanding began to dawn on her. "Cassie was able to get Liara into the shelter, but there wasn't time for her to get herself in. She got Liara to safety and then she destroyed the shelter access panel so that the raiders couldn't breach the interior in the time that they had."
"Hannah…" Benezia's voice was soft, anguished, tentatively trying to offer some manner of comfort, but the human just kept speaking, rolling out the terrible words implacably.
"She's gone, along with about a thousand other citizens from the population. We weren't able to track them through the relays, and the ship Cassie was on slipped the Council's net. I need you to come pick up Liara as soon as you can, before Eighth Fleet redeploys." Her jaw worked for a moment, eyes glistening even through the terminal's visual pick-up, before she bobbed a short, curt nod. "See you soon."
Benezia stared at the now silent and dim console for a long, shocked moment, before frowning and leaning forward with one hand stretching out. She couldn't possibly leave things as they stood, Hannah was obviously in agony and she hadn't even given her friends a moment to try and comfort her! She was going to call her back right this instant, and she…
"Don't." Aethyta commanded, one hand wrapping around her wrist and stopping it in it's tracks before it could reach it's target. She looked at her bondmate in shock and no small amount of anger, appalled by the callousness she saw in the act, but her tongue was stilled before it could start by the look on Aethyta's face. A look that she hadn't seen since before Liara had been born, and one that she had never wanted to see again. Not even looking at her, the other matriarch continued, even as she reached for the console herself. "Hannah's not in any shape for sympathy right now, and it wouldn't help. What she needs is action, a target. Sympathy and crying and comfort will feel like an acceptance, make it feel like Cassie is well and truly lost to her."
She started working the console deftly, pulling up a string of contacts and typing in messages with quick fingers as she continued to dispense hard-earned wisdom and commands in the same rigid, even tone.
"Shiala, get Radiant Wing ready to fly. You're taking Benezia to Mindoir to pick up Liara. I want that ship ready to fly within the hour."
"Yes, Matriarch."
A face flickered into existence on the console, and Benezia sucked in a sharp breath at the not-unfamiliar visage of Honora (just Honora, thank you very much), Aethyta's personal captain and loyal follower from her…former vocation.
"Captain." The younger matriarch greeted the elder, and Aethyta regarded her for a long moment before responding.
"Get the ship ready. I want us away within the hour." She ordered, and a slight widening of her eyes was the only indication of Honora's surprise at the command. Seeing the reaction, Aethyta bared her teeth in a feral, cold facsimile of a smile. "There is a hunt afoot, Honora. Sound the horns and gather the pack."
"By your command, Captain." The woman acknowledged, before the screen went blank, and Benezia swallowed heavily as she looked at the stone-like profile of her love.
"Are you sure you want to do this, my love?" she asked softly, before wincing at the sharp look the other woman shot her, and she raised a placating hand. "I do not protest to anything that would help Cassie. I love that girl, that alone would be enough for me to want all resources bent to her rescue. What she did for Liara makes it all the more important. But there are ways for us to find her that don't…you don't…have to…"
"For me to dust off old things?" The Black Sheep of the Matriarchy quipped sardonically, eyes hawkish. She nodded slowly, not the nod of someone convinced but the nod of someone acknowledging the validity of a point that would none the less be ignored. "You're right. Between the two of us, and all our friends and allies and followers, we can probably find Cassie quickly enough. It would even be reasonable, showing restraint. But I'm not interested in showing restraint, Benezia. I'm not interested in solving this with cleverness and credits. No, I'm going to leverage all the information and friendships I can muster and start burning the Terminus Systems to the ground until I find her."
And that, right there, was one of the things that gave Benezia such complicated feelings about the woman she had given her heart nearly a century ago. On the one hand, the fierce, protective passion that Aethyta loved with was a beautiful thing, something that would ensure no one she cared for ever doubted their place in her heart. On the other, she could never quite forget that the father of her daughter had long led a life very, very different from her own…under a very different code of conduct.
As her bondmate got to her feet and went about preparing, Benezia could only wonder how the rest of the galaxy would react to what was about to happen…and hope that no one uninvolved was foolish enough to get in the way.