FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

~~~

Prologue: So little time.

There was always a profound sense of anxiety and excitement when a new species was encountered. Anxiety in that the already chaotic Empire would have to shift to make room for either a barbarian state on their borders or a new frontier region. And much excitement in that there was an entirely new culture to explore, arts to enjoy, and exotic bodies to delight in. The last part wasn't mentioned in polite company, but it was true all the same.

Vation Nal'Galagar considered these things and more as he watched the bizarre alien ship drift on inertia toward the diplomatic cruiser Anesidora. It was unlikely that the aliens would be able to see Vation himself, the cruiser's many windows were likely full of Nal'Galagar wolves watching the ship approach. But he stood straight-backed and with his medals on display on the off-chance he was being observed. With the Nal'Galagar it wasn't as easy to tell the nobility from the commoners save by manner of dress. Gold and black were the colors of Nal'galagar, and Vation wore them well. It helped that he himself was a black-furred grey wolf, a stylistic choice made by his parents to let him stand out more from his siblings.

His wardrobe consisted of a coat with tassel lapels, exaggerated cuffs, simple trousers tucked into tall boots, and a red sash across his torso diagonally on which the medals he'd been awarded were displayed. The yellow sunburst nano-pigmented into the fur around his left eye was unusually large--it reached well across his cheek and into his scalp where it colored some of his otherwise black headfur. First-contact ships always had such displays as a priority, to entice allies and intimidate enemies.

Exactly why impromptu highlights would intimidate anyone outside the hairdresser's profession escaped Vation, but that wasn't important.

The elegant, alien-looking ship that had rotated ninety degrees to dock with the Anesidora mattered so much more. Vation braced himself against the window as the cruiser shook with the act of docking. Once the impact tremors ceased, he sharply turned away from the viewport and left his quarters to meet the arriving delegates.

While he walked he was joined by other Nal'Galagar diplomats, his guard detail, and the translators who would act as go-betweens for the talks. Officially, it was Major House Nal'Galagar who had discovered the new species--a multi-planet confederacy that called themselves Uvand--but in reality, it had been the people who would become the translators: The Lotus Order.

A monastic group that acted as courtesans, teachers, warriors, and spiritual leaders in their strange religion the Lotus Way. They were garbed all in rose-pink robes and little else. Vation imagined some of the crew were pleased to have them aboard, but he wasn't. They added a level of complication to the proceedings as they represented a non-Noble power base to the newcomers. Indeed, the only reason Nal'Galagar had become involved was that the Order was forbidden from forming exclusive trade agreements with barbarian states.

Vation and his team soon found themselves in the meeting room--normally for officer discussions aboard the Anesidora, but repurposed for diplomacy. A long, gently curved, table dominated the room, surrounded by comfortable chairs. All along the wall were viewports that faced opposite the Uvand's ship, and thus displayed the myriad stars from which they had come.

The Nal'Galagar would occupy one end of the table, the Uvand delegation the other, and the Lotus Men, though Vation didn't like it, would occupy the middle spaces. Proper civilized people would enter first and be seated by the time the barbarians arrived--that was the tradition. Vation took his place and rested his hands on his lap while he stared intently at the seat that would be occupied by his opponents on the Uvand delegation. His subordinates and the Lotus Men began to chatter, more to appear that they had been waiting significantly longer than they actually had. This too was a tradition.

Vation didn't like it much--it was too adversarial. It painted the picture that the Empire was unified and chummy with its constituent parts too well, and would drive the newer, less secure, power to feel defensive. During his tenure as a junior diplomat, he had seen three new species use that justification to secure privileges they had no right to, or outright leave the negotiating table from the perceived hostility. He failed to realize how hostile a black wolf with other wolves flanking him could be to an alien species.

A guard called one of the Lotus Men, a dainty female hare, to the door and Vation watched her go. Moments later, the Lotus Woman returned with another female at her side.

"Presenting the Uvand delegate, Merren of the Bestin Coven," the Lotus Woman announced and bowed to the lords while the stranger passed her without so much as a glance.

The woman's features were hidden by a wide-brimmed conical hat that sported a glittering veil along its edges. She wore a dress of voluminous black fabric that trailed behind her while she walked. A short cape of feathers of some alien bird all around her neck and shoulders, and as the light caught her dress it sparkled like the starry sky outside the viewports. Every part of her was covered, even her hands were unseen in her impractically wide sleeves. The foreign diplomat crossed the room, silent save for the clack of her shoes on the floor and took her seat opposite Vation.

Vation refrained from his instinct to double-take. The Uvand had sent only one diplomat. Most unusual, bordering on improper by Imperial standards. He was about to speak when Merren spoke first. The Uvand language was lilting, musical, not unlike the language the lovebirds of House Erinya had spoken before adapting to Imperial Catalos.

The most senior Lotus Man, a withered, ancient tortoise, spoke with an air of sophistication as he translated what had been said. "The Lady Merren offers her formal greetings from the Uvand government and her coven, as well. She compliments you on how fashionably you are dressed, Lord Vation, and uses a colloquial term to refer to a strikingly handsome man, which literally translates into 'murderer of women'."

Vation's ears didn't move as they instinctively wished, to indicate how bizarre and inappropriate he found such comments, even while his juniors looked shocked and chagrined at the implications. The black wolf-lord leaned back in his chair and considered the Uvand. He couldn't even determine her species with the hat on. But they had a semi-civilized eye for fashion and an appreciation of alien beauty; frankly, he should have anticipated that as the Lotus Order had been amongst them for nearly a year to learn their language.

"I accept her greetings and offer the welcome of Major House Nal'Galagar in reply. Her dress is like the firmament made into fabric, stunning. And on the charge of murdering women, I was acquitted." It was a gamble, to be flippant with an alien diplomat, but he could play off any offense as the Lotus Man misunderstanding what he'd said, and Merren's comment made him suspect she was flirting with him by proxy.

The tortoise conveyed his reply, and the Uvand chuckled beneath her veiled hat. His gambit had worked, she was amused by him. And he could use that to further the position of the Nal'Galagar.

What had been most interesting about the Uvand was that the entire population, every man, and woman, was an awakened Maestro. They had incorporated the use of adaptive nano into their everyday lives--to such a degree that they could perhaps survive the political paraihship that would come from having tradesmen's skills. The Empire's oldest, most conservative, nobility disdained money and those that had the skills to make it.

Following that was the fact that they seemed to have no children. The Lotus People that had been among them had seen no Uvand children or even adolescents. Per the Lotus People, attempts to produce new children were a major part of their society, and perhaps had led to their universal Maestro status--to keep as many Uvand alive as possible until the issue was fixed. Or perhaps the universal awakening of their adaptive nano had caused infertility.

Either way, it gave Nal'Galagar a strong bargaining chip in the negotiations that followed. Vation's house was peerless in the medical sciences, not even the Imperial House held approximate mastery. On top of faster-than-light travel, on top of a galaxy of new experiences and peoples, Major House Nal'Galagar stood to give the Uvand back their future as a species.

And Vation intended to get his House their due for such wonderful gifts.

Merren was a delight to negotiate with for that purpose. When he first proposed a trade of raw materials for a sum of Imperial scrib to begin her species' wealth in the galaxy, she upped the value to be traded. Almost half a planet's worth of carbon, iron, and heavy metals was what was offered for the scrib. Far more than what the sum was worth. Her reasoning was that, while trade with the wider Empire would come eventually, Nal'Galagar would be the only one their people trusted for a long time. In effect, Nal'Galagar would have a monopoly on trade with the Uvand for the foreseeable future. And she wished for a warm sentiment toward her people on the Nal'Galagar side--completely reasonable.

In an older, more experienced, diplomat such gifts would be suspect. But Vation was convinced that it was due to their desperation. Who wouldn't be desperate to earn Nal'Galagar's favor when presented with the alternative of no new births for the rest of eternity?

Then came the issue of finalizing the deal.

"By Imperial tradition," Vation informed Merren directly, "alliances such as these must be sealed with a marriage." He had taken to ignoring the Lotus People and spoke to the Uvand woman specifically. If the monks took umbrage with it, they didn't show any signs Vation could pick up. "And your government would need to sort out who would rule over the new House created by your admittance to the Empire."

"The Halliwell coven will rule, of course," Merren said back to him via the translators. "Though currently they are all married--your House would need to make good on its offer of resolving our fertility issue so that a new member of the coven could be born to marry your kin."

'Why then didn't someone from the Halliwell coven come to this meeting, then?' Vation wondered but refrained from speaking. "I will bring the issue up to the Archduke of my House, along with His Excellency as the Emperor ponders the prefix to be granted to your House. This may take some time, on top of the time needed to develop fertility treatments, you realize."

Merren chuckled, face unseen beneath her hat. "If your House can do this for us, we have all the time in the world for you, my Lord. We can wait. What else would we do? Grow old?" The woman actually cackled at her own joke before the translation was finished.

Vation left the negotiating like he'd made a deal with some demon in exchange for his soul, despite how his House had gained so much and given so little in return. A palpable sense of dread weighed him down for weeks to come.

~~~

For some reason, the representatives of the Uvand, who would become Gei'Uvand upon the negotiation and completion of a marriage contract, had asked for Vation to be present at the uncasking of the first--and ideally, only--of their artificially grown children. From what he had heard among the medical corps assigned to Uvand space, the problem had been simple--the adaptive nano in their systems would erroneously attack the fetus, thinking it a parasite. The introduction of a metafauna framework in the alien nanite operating system had corrected the issue, but by then an enterprising young technician had attempted to tank-grow a fetus using a modded cloning tube.

To any Imperial House more than six hundred years old, it would have been horribly insulting. But the Uvand, bizarre in their ways, found the idea both charming and resourceful. Vation surmised that at the time of the attempt, there was no guarantee that the Uvand would ever be able to conceive naturally again. The Uvand had even petitioned to list the technician on the roll of their ancestors for his part--an implausible honor for a man of low birth in the more traditional parts of the Empire.

The Anesidora arrived at the space station set up by the Nal'Galagar to facilitate their controlled uplift of the Uvand. Once the uplift was complete, it would serve as the terminus for an orbital elevator from their homeworld's surface. The black, reflective metal of the space station contrasted nicely with the vibrantly warm colors of the Uvand homeworld, Caeso. The interior of the station was much the same, metal polished so thoroughly it appeared like black glass. His ship's gunmetal grey hull clashed heavily with the station's, to the point of being an eyesore.

Vation treated the uncasking like it was a normal birth when he arrived in a room full of people wearing wide-brimmed conical hats with veils of various fabrics and colors obscuring their faces. He congratulated the parents and stood to the side in a military at-ease pose. Words could not convey how much he didn't want to be there in the dark, moist, room where a glowing tube of synthetic amniotic fluid stood that did not grant a clear view of the, presumably, fetus. He presumed because he hadn't seen an Uvand without their hat, and those that had were sworn to confidentiality. The two desires, to finally see what they looked like, and to be anywhere but where he was battled in him.

The obligation to respect his House's allies won out over both, in the end. Once it was over, he could return to the Anesidora and leave for a new frontier. Hopefully one with less disturbing imagery.

Imagine his surprise when he saw the ancient, scarred, and frankly foppish Archduke Requil Nal'Galagar enter a few minutes after Vation himself had arrived with thirteen of his honor guard. The weary old wolf-lord brightened considerably when he was met with fawning greetings by the Uzand nobility, he seemed to delight in their accented greetings and compliments, with effulgent gratitude mixed in. Perhaps his Archduke was like Vation and would see the opportunity for their House's advancement in having another Major House so dependent on them.

Or perhaps, Vation ruefully pondered when the Archduke stood alongside him, the old wolf was happy that so many people were so happy to see him. Requil was not exactly popular among the Nal'Galagar--the man had taken a Merchant's daughter as his second wife after his first had passed away. Shameful. Such dalliances were meant to become concubines, not wives.

Vation didn't like that sentiment, but his like or dislike didn't affect what was proper. Which this entire situation most certainly wasn't.

"My Lord Archduke, greetings to you and may your reign last longer than the stars," Vation greeted, turned, and bowed sharply to the older wolf. The Archduke wore the cumbersome but stunningly beautiful robes of office that had been passed down from generation to generation. The idea was that the Archduke or Archduchess would be the solid foundation of the past around which the rest of the House could grow in safety.

Requil's pleasant mood evaporated when he turned to look down upon the shorter wolf-lord with an arched brow. "And may your years outnumber them," he finished the ritual greeting. "You're... Ekaterina's youngest son, yes?"

Vation nodded and returned to look unflinchingly at the tube that they had all come to see opened. Vation's mother had shared a great-grandparent with the Archduke's, making them distant relations at best. Closer, perhaps, than some members of the family, but not so close that it was suitable for the Archduke to know his or his mother's name. But it was the least improper thing to happen so far, so Vation did not draw more attention to it. "I am, my Lord Archduke. Our allies requested I be present here, though for what reason I am not certain."

Requil cupped his bearded chin in one hand, and for a moment looked almost Archduchal in appearance. "Probably because they have made it their intention to have this child as their marriage candidate, and they've specifically asked for you to be their husband once they come of age."

For a long moment, Vation failed to parse what his Archduke had just said. When he did, his ears rang as if an explosion had just gone off near him. It was suddenly even more uncomfortable in the crowded, moist room, and Vation had to make use of his noetic training to remain calm. In that enforced calm, he glanced his Archduke for a moment. "I humbly request clarification, my Lord Archduke, perhaps I misheard--"

"You didn't," Requil cut him off with a firm, no-nonsense voice. "And, spoiler warning, I intend to accept the arrangement." Requil could somehow sense Vation was displeased with these developments through the black wolf's noetic training and held up his hands placatingly. "Look, it'll be twenty years before whatever's in that tank is ready to be married, and only if it's properly developed. The odds of this experiment actually producing viable offspring is what, one in thirty-five? You're unmarried, you have no lands or significant status to lose out on, and these people seem to have some strong affection for you to pick you over any of my children." Requil counted the items he listed off on his fingers.

Vation couldn't refute any of his Lord Archduke's assertions. It was a political blunder on the Uvand's part to marry their first-born in hundreds of years to a low-ranking noble of another Major House when the option for the Archduke's children was possible. He understood how much it benefited his House, and how the Archduke could spin it into a massive political gain for himself back at court. Were Vation in Requil's situation, he would do the same thing. But that didn't comfort him any.

Something the Archduke had said set off warning bells in his head that he noticed as he thought about it some more. "Again, I humbly request clarification. What do you mean 'lose out on'?"

Requil's scarred face, the product of years in the army and more than one assassination attempt, was a mask of political neutrality that Vation could respect in a college, but in his Lord Archduke, arbitrator of his life, the black wolf found terrifying. "If the child is male, they have asked that you would be the Sapphire Husband." The traditionally-colored gray wolf shrugged, nonchalant, in a manner most unbecoming of the Archduke of Nal'Galagar. "You have so little to lose that I have no problem with that. Of course, as your liege, I would provide a dowry befitting a scion of mine becoming a Sapphire Husband. The colony system Ushanka, which lies along the frontier regions, would be granted to the Uvand heir, along with an acceptable amount of scrib according to your station."

Vation's composure threatened to break from the development, but he held it together. His noetics let him see the political gain that could be earned from that arrangement, and that his becoming a Sapphire Husband was contingent upon the fetus they had arrived to witness the birth of being male. A one in seventy chance. Perhaps the fetus wouldn't be viable at all, and he could file a petition for spinsterhood. To be alone and unmarried, barred permanently from having biological children or having a relationship more official than a concubine would be preferable to being a Sapphire. Sapphires couldn't own property, everything they owned belonged to their Ruby Husband--even the clothes off their backs. Vation had read scandalous historical stories about Sapphires who were married and promptly stripped to live the rest of their lives in the nude. People on Catalos seemed to think that was romantic, so detached from reality were they. However, an out presented itself, though he hated that such a private matter had to become the instrument of his salvation.

Vation turned to speak when the Uvand began to chatter loudly. The uncasking would happen soon. He had to act quickly. With a bow, he spoke again to the Archduke who had eyes only for the cloning tube. "My Lord Archduke, I cannot be a Sapphire Husband--I'm not virginal as is required by Imperial tradition."

Requil sighed like he was annoyed that Vation kept trying to escape his shackle. "Is that so? And have you any proof to assert that lack of virginity?"

The question threw the black wolf for a loop, he hadn't anticipated the need to prove his sexual experience, meager though it was. "I... I lay with Count Shimata of Ro'Xanshin fifteen years ago. You can ask him--"

"No, I cannot." The Archduke rubbed one of his temples and looked almost pityingly at Vation. "Count Shimata was killed in a pirate raid two years ago. And he did not leave a journal of his conquests that anyone in the Empire could read." That became a frightening chain of repetitions. Vation would provide a name, and his Archduke would inform him that his one-time lover had passed away. Some by murder, some by assassination, and one drank slamfighter fuel to escape an arranged marriage much like what Vation faced. Some of those people he had known personally, but his time spent on the frontier had kept him out of correspondence with them. After Vation had run out of names, Requil tilted his head to one side, his expression unamused. "Are you done? Or do you have some other means of disproving your virginity?"

Defeated, Vation bowed once more and kept his eyes on the metal floor of the cloning chamber. "No, my Lord Archduke. I... I have nothing but my own word." For a horrifying moment, Vation regretted the lengths he had gone to ensure he wouldn't have any bastards. A few months' embarrassments could have saved his life.

"If only your word were good enough." Requil's expression shifted to pitying once more, though Vation didn't see it. "Please understand that I do understand. But it's part of your obligation to your House, and only if the child is male."

At that precise moment, there was a pronounced wooshing sound accompanied by warning beeps. In a proper cloning procedure, these would signal the processing staff to be on standby. But in this instance, the damnable enigmatic Uvand clustered around the tube as it emptied. The unknown species twittered to each other like gossiping old ladies and were appropriately silenced by the cry of a baby.

Vation's heart sank at the sound of a new generation taking a breath. He returned to his at ease military pose and silently prayed it was a female... whatever the Uvand were. The enigmatic aliens were like commoners fawning over a cute animal, all coos and pokes to the unseen babe. The two happy parents were allowed through to the gathering to approach the Archduke with a wriggling bundle of starry cloth in the female's arms.

While Requil offered congratulations and other platitudes, Vation watched the babe wriggle about in the starry blanket. With all the star iconography, he realized dimly, they would have to figure out a way to make it unique among the eighty-odd houses that had a stellar theme. His own included. The baby's mother noted his staring and adjusted her burden to permit him to see. The creature was a mammal, of black and white fur. White on the body and most of the head, but black on the extremities, ears, and around the eyes. The skull reminded him of a bear's. And it was unmistakably male.

Vation couldn't quite remember the rest of the day past that point. He was there for the negotiations of his own wedding contract, and for the naming ceremony of his newborn betrothed. Galess Halliwell Gei'Uvand would be his name come the completion of the marriage ceremony. Vation only really came back to his awareness when he encountered Merrin on his way back to the Anesidora.

"...Why?" He asked her. A simple to-the-point question, one of the few he had ever uttered in his career without political connotations. The black wolf asked the two-tone bear woman again when she didn't answer.

"You think this is some act of vengeance," she spoke to him for the first time without a translator. "But it is not so. Would you be asking me that question, if in twenty years you had a young bride to build a home with?"

Vation emphatically answered in the affirmative and got no reaction from the veiled bear-lady. "I did not desire anyone to build a home with. My home is aboard my ship, on the frontier--"

She crossed the gap between them and seized his jaw in one hand. Despite her shorter, slimmer build her strength was such that he couldn't break free from the hold. Under her veil, a pair of blood red eyes shone like hot coals. "Do not lie to me. Do not lie to us." With an imperious huff, she released him and pushed him backward all at once. "We can hear your thoughts as clearly as you can hear us."

The use of the plural did not escape Vation's notice, nor did her comment on seeing his thoughts. "You can... read my mind?" He all at once wanted to think of the possibilities but refused to do so.

"No. The mind is not a book to be read. It is a voice to be heard." The red glow from her eyes dimmed and faded altogether. "You act like this is an end to your career, like we will want you to abandon your task or your crew. This is not so--live as you have lived. But in twenty years' time, we will ask you to come back. Or we will bring you back if you make it necessary." The petit bear turned on her heels and started off away from the black wolf.

"And what happens if I die out on the frontier, huh?" Vation abandoned his carefully managed dignified tone to call after the departing woman's back. "I could run into meteor storms, a pirate raid, a barbarian empire that isn't as friendly as you have been.... So much happens at the edges of the Empire's territory."

She paused and turned back to regard him, inscrutable behind her veil. "Either way, you will die on the frontier. Your life will come to an end long, long before the borders shift enough that Ushanka isn't on the frontier, my Lord." Without further discussion, she left the scene and vanished around a corner.

~~~

Naturally, the revelation that the Uvand could hear people's thoughts made major waves in the Empire once Vation told his Archduke, and his Archduke told their allies. Several injunctions were made against them to abandon their universal Maestro practice, but they were shot down by the Imperial House. Uvand Maestros, though technically barbarians until Vation married Galess in twenty years time, were highly demanded across the Empire as spies and interrogators. Again, the Imperial House shot down the offers wholesale. Until the Uvand became the Gei'Uvand with their official admittance to the Empire, no one could trade with them outside of a material exchange. An exception was made for the Lotus Order, who had been given permission by the Halliwell coven to build one of their temples on Caeso.

Vation stopped paying attention when he heard the news that some of the more traditional Houses wanted to reduce the Uvand's numbers so that their telepathy was a non-factor. That they would be so few that they couldn't put any House's schemes at risk. Most seemed to forget that an attack on the Uvand would draw Nal'Galagar into the fight and that in turn would draw Ro'Xanshin into the fight.

The thought of an entire species of telepaths was terrifying for many of the Empire's old guard. But it wasn't so terrifying that they would willingly go to war with Ro'Xanshin. The house of bloody foxes was, to use a commoner slang term, not to be fucked with. And Ro'Xanshin's official policy was that the Uvand were entirely acceptable... so long as they remained allies of Nal'Galagar, and in turn, Ro'Xanshin. The socio-economic bloc that the three of them would create would perhaps prove to be devastatingly effective outside the political arena.

Vation cared not for politics anymore though. He had decided to live the last twenty years of his freedom like they were all he had left to live at all. He would take the Anesidora and her crew where few would dare, into peril and adventure. For the first time since he took command of the cruiser, he would get to know his crew personally. It wasn't proper, for a nobleman to be so familiar with commoners and tradesmen. But then he didn't think it proper for a grown man in his thirties to be betrothed to a baby, either.

As he charted the stars, mapped new planets for future expansion, and occasionally met new species, something dawned on the black wolf--he was alone. Even though he would grow chummy with his crew, he could confide in none of them the sordid details of his doubts or his fears. Vation realized, he had no friends. Allies certainly, especially in his House's leadership. But none so close that they wouldn't betray him the moment his usefulness was outweighed by their ambition.

And he realized subsequently, he had no idea how to make friends. It felt like whining to say he hadn't been given a chance to be a child--he'd had responsibilities all his life. 'What good are toys when you have so much work to do, you'd never play with them?', as his mother would say. What good are friends when you have so much work, you'd never interact with them?

However, he considered twenty years sufficient time to learn, and correct the mistake he'd lived with for so long. He decided to make his first attempt with the chaperone that the higher-ups in Nal'Galagar had sent to make sure Vation didn't screw random members of his crew to escape his marriage contract. Publicly, he decried the affront to his personal honor implied in the action, privately he cursed his more senior family members for their canny intuition.

Officially, Lady Vecheld Ro'Xanshin--the until recently wandering philosopher--was assigned to the Anesidora in the capacity of a military advisor and representative of Ro'Xanshin interests. Apparently, the new Archduke of Ro'Xanshin had grown 'concerned' about his ally's relentless pursuit of expansion, and publicly Vecheld was aboard to make sure at least one person was prepared in the event of hostile first-contact. Anyone who fact-checked that sentiment would find the Anesidora had handled seven hostile first-contacts during her lifetime, and that veterans from the most recent such event still served aboard her.

The crew certainly had no qualms about an exotic fox warrior woman serving aboard the ship with them, particularly one filled with such stories of adventure and subterfuge as Vecheld's were. Vation found her to be infuriating to deal with, more rigid in her ideologies than he, but more flippant in their execution. It made it seem like the respect she afforded the traditions was false, an act she put on while she privately would believe otherwise. But the only reason she would portray such an image would be if it were a trap to lure in dissenters.

Not a dissenter himself, Vation assumed he would have nothing to fear from the fox-lady. They were social peers, their Houses were allies, and he didn't find her attractive enough to make untoward advances upon.

The Lady Vecheld sat across from him in the ready room adjacent to the bridge, essentially Vation's office. She wore ceramasteel armor combined with a layered Xanshin-style robe in blood red decorated with the image of cherry flowers at the sleeves and neckline, sandals, a peculiar style of trouser that resembled a parted skirt, and carried an electronic smoking pipe with her. Her shiverspear stood, perfectly balanced on its base, adjacent the warrior philosopher while Vation poured them drinks, and offered her some of the Nal'Galagar's finest booze.

"To your health, and to a peaceful exploratory quest into the unknown," Vation toasted with the Ro'Xanshin once they were both given the requisite alcohol.

Vecheld returned the toast, and they drank. "You're a lot less... stiff about this than I was led to believe," the fox-lady said with her head inclined backward in consideration. Such a gesture rattled the red glass beads strung through her headfur. "In your position, more than one noble would become moody, depressed, sullen, perhaps even vindictive. Should I be concerned you poisoned my drink?"

"Fear not," Vation held up his hand in a gesture to assuage the military advisor's suspicions. "I am rather depressed about this issue, yes. But my depression won't change anything." He shrugged, perhaps improper given the company he kept, but he did it all the same. "There's twenty years still where I can live my life how I choose. Well, mostly how I choose." He sipped the nanite enriched wine once more and appreciated the vintage even through his morose thoughts. "Twenty years is a long time."

"We'll see if you feel that way when the years go by, Lord Vation." The fox-lady smiled lopsided, but not a smirk, as she regarded him. "Already the time is burning away. What do you intend to spend your time on?"

Vation drank his wine glass down to emptiness before he responded. "I intend to be as far away from the Uvand as possible, for starters. The next field of exploration will be the Shuwaran sector's frontier, presuming the Archduke approves the course."

"You dislike your husband's house so?" She hadn't meant to be cruel by it, her tone and expression were as one in curiosity. And Vation's noetic training on reading facial cues picked up none of the telltale duplicitous indicators a fox would display.

"He isn't my husband. He isn't even a boy yet, he's still a squalling babe looking for a teat to suckle. And no, I don't dislike the Uvand--I just don't want to be near them with my free time." Suddenly bitter about the society he had all but successfully integrated into the Empire, a major boon for any diplomat's career, he was tempted to refill his wine glass for more mind-numbing alcohol. But he refrained--it wasn't proper to appear a drunk in front of a guest. Vecheld had drunk her wine down to nearly nothing, so Vation took the chance to get more intoxicated. "More wine?"

"I don't actually care much for wine." She leaned forward and glanced around conspiratorially before speaking again. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually fond of commoner beer." That tidbit of information would be grounds enough to get her disbarred from any major social engagements for a year--nobles drinking beer was completely unacceptable.

"Just between the two of us," Vation replied in a near-whisper. "I'm personally a fan of martinis." It was a terrible thing to admit, social suicide. Fancying commoner beer was one thing, but Mercantile martinis? He would be sent to the most remote part of the Empire and left to rot.

Vecheld however, seemed to appreciate his honesty and the admission that put them in position to socially damage each other. Vation had read once that friends would hoard blackmail material, so he hoped that by giving her something on him after she had done the same, that could signal his friendly intent.

Fortunately for everyone involved, he was correct, and he started the process of making his first friend.