Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Two (section)

==Hesiod==

===Exploring the City of Tribal Kings===


First was a squeal.  “Eeee!  Venus that was amazing!” Remilia said.  She wrapped her cousin in a bear hug.  “I was so impressed!”

“Thanks,” Venus managed, disengaging herself from her cousin.  “Could you tell?”

“I could tell, but nobody else will, Venus, trust me,” Remilia said.

Freya added her own hug to the total.  “You did fine.”

Alex spoke up from the bed.  “Nice job, your Highness.”

“Nobody in this room calls me that, all right?” Venus groaned.  “Except where protocol demands it.”

Jake set the crown on the table and sank into a chair.  “Well…baby, I thought it was great.  Concise.  Leave them wanting more.”

“That was the plan, yeah.  So glad I didn’t stick to the speech,” Venus said, powering down her weapons.  “It sounds so corny now that I think about it.  All ‘From the bottom of my heart’ and ‘Endless gratitude,’ etc.”

“Eh, you would have made it sound good,” Remilia said.

“Suuure.  Anyway.  Who’s hungry?” Venus asked.  Jake snorted at the total incongruity between her appearance and question.

Alex levered up out of his chair.  “Ravenous.  What time is it?”

Freya checked her travelers’ watch.  “Uh…around local noon.”

“Perfect.”  Venus stood up and stretched, the scabbarded power sword waving dangerously.  “Lemme change, then we can go grab some food and be tourists for a few hours.  Then back in uniform for part three.”

“What?” Jake asked.

“Oh, I won’t be having dinner with you guys.  I need to meet the Governor and reassure him I’m not taking over his job or anything.”  Venus shrugged, grabbing the box.

Jake followed her into their room and Venus disappeared into the bathroom.  Jake eyed the clothes he had brought with him in the closet.  “Hey…Venus, what clothes do we have that are appropriate for here?”

“Uh…pretty much anything.  Nocturneans don’t give much a fuck about fashion, really, from what I know.”  Venus stuck her head out of the door.  “Just…dark pants, any length, and a shirt you don’t mind having sweat on.”

Jake selected a few items and hurriedly changed, then passed her recommendation on to the others.  As he returned, Venus emerged, pushing her armored clothing on a mobile rack.  “Okay…I want to leave this on a rack so I can wear it tonight.”  She cast an appraising stare over her boyfriend.  “You look fine.”

“Good.”  Jake grabbed his sunglasses, a going-away present from his parents, and carefully slid them on.  “Awesome.  They fit perfectly.”

“Looks good on you.  Are those from your parents?” she asked.

“Yeah.”  Jake grabbed his wallet.  “Guess I don’t need this,” he said, pulling his Terran drivers’ license out.

“You should always carry an ID on another planet.”

“I mean I won’t be driving any more,” Jake said.  Venus looked up at him, confused.  “I sold the car, remember?”

“Oh…yeah.  Why did you do that, anyway?  You’ll need it at Kouthry.  And your parents might need a car too.”

Jake shrugged.  “They paid for half the car, and I sold it for a third of what we bought it for, so I just gave them the money.”

Venus laughed.  “Man…that’s a shame.  We have history with that thing.”

“We did,” Jake said.  He half-smiled as the memories came back.  “Ah well.  So long, we hardly knew you.  Oh hey, before I forget…” he wandered over to the door, as nonchalantly as he could.  Closing it, he let his hand rest on the handle, trying to phrase his question.  “How, uh…how exactly are you going to come back?”

“Come again?” Venus asked, struggling into her walking shoes.

“In the speech, you said you were going to come back and take leadership of the planet.  When, exactly?” Jake asked.

“At some point in that nebulous blob of time called ‘the future,’” she said, but she didn’t sound like she was joking.  Jake turned around to see her sitting on the edge of the bed, looking up at him.  “Look…I know we haven’t discussed it.  To be honest, I had barely even thought about it.  But…Jake, it’s going to happen.”  She immediately screwed up her face in regret.  “Shit.  Let me revise that.”  She rubbed her eyes, thinking hard.  “See…Dad was really generous.  He knows that I didn’t really know what to do with my life after we graduate.  Military, private business, travel, politics…I don’t know.  I DIDN’T know.  But when we arrived here…it was like my blood had been too cold my entire life, and now it’s the right temperature.  I feel physically different here, Jake.  I feel better.”

Jake crossed his arms.  “Wow.  Venus…that scares me.”

“Scares?”

“That sounds like this planet’s a drug to you, or something.”

Venus looked up at him, hurt.  He stared back, clearly intimidated, but not backing down.  “It’s…”  She tried to find words.  “Damn it.  I did make it sound that way, didn’t I?”

Jake didn’t respond, knowing from experience that it was better to let her work it out on her own.  She fidgeted.  “Jake, I can’t explain it.  When we stepped off the Tide, it was like coming home in the weirdest way.  You know?”  She sighed.  “No.  You don’t.”  She stood, rubbing her hands.  “I don’t want to sound arbitrary.  But…I do have a responsibility here.  It’s not the part of my life you saw back on Earth, I know, but…I do.  I’m a Princess here.  Even if I didn’t feel…whatever the hell I feel here, I would STILL have to come back.  All the time.  I might not have come back permanently, but…Jake, technically, I AM the system Overlord.  Dad’s ceded his position to the Regent, and as the highest noble in the system, I’m the Imperial System Overlord until we leave again.  I will be every time I visit.”  She finally met his gaze again.  “Does that help?”

Jake drew in a long breath, and unclenched his arms.  “A little.  I admit…we haven’t talked about it much.”

“Well…we’ve got time.  Kouthry.  Maybe grad school.”  Venus sank back on the bed.  She looked over at her armor on the stand.  “I won’t do anything permanent without asking.  Of course.  But Jake, this place is home to me,” she said.  She looked up at the burnished breastplate, inscribed with Old Nocturnean words.  She read them to herself, finding some odd comfort in their design.  “It probably always will be.  These are my people.”

Jake nodded.  “In honesty, I think…if it weren’t for the gravity, I could learn to like living like a noble here.”

“Well, first off, the gravity differential is so small that with a little exercise, you genuinely won’t even notice it,” Venus said.  She looked up at him again, smiling coyly.  “And you are a noble.”

“I’m your boyfriend, hon, and nothing more formal than that,” Jake said with a laugh.

“Well…I hope this isn’t too distracting for you,” she said.  “Personally, I think you’ve done an outstanding job at ignoring how completely weird my life is.”

“Not ignoring, disregarding,” Jake said.  “I would be ignoring it if I pretended it wasn’t weird.”  He grinned.  “There are benefits, too.  I don’t live in a hive any more, and I won't, for several more years."

She stood up and grabbed her wallet.  “Do you miss it?”

“The sense of community?  All the time.  The locale?  Fuck that noise,” he said.  “I’ll live surface as long as I can.”

“I bet,” she said, passing him his license back.  “Here.  Let’s go.”


===Meeting And Greeting===


They rejoined their companions in the hall, dressed and ready.  “So…Venus, what do you recommend?” Alex asked.

“How should I know?  Let’s ask someone downstairs,” she said.

Alex snorted.  “Right, sorry.”  The group made their way down the hall to the lifts, and Venus was just considering asking random strangers in the hangar when a chambermaid serf emerged from a nearby room.

Freya angled straight up to her.  “Excuse me.  Can you recommend a place around here to go eat?”

The serf looked over at them, pre-packaged smile on her face, and did a quick double take as she spotted Venus at the back of the group.  Venus put a finger to her own lips and winked.  The serf stared, but struggled to answer.  “Er…there’s no place to eat around here for three blocks…but I would recommend a cafeteria five blocks east if you don’t mind a walk.”

“Great, thanks,” Freya said, bounding away.  Venus slid some mirrored sunglasses on, and tugged up her collar.  No sense in tempting fate.

The group emerged from the lifts in the public hangar, and made for the ground exit.  A small group of Salamander serfs in plainclothes followed them at a discrete distance, just for safety more than anything else.

As they stepped out onto the streets beyond for the first time, Jake and Alex both paused to stare.  The sky was red.  Deep, burning red.  “That’s going to take some getting used to,” Alex murmured.  Jake nodded his silent assent.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Venus asked.

“It is…” Jake said.  He looked up at the volcano rising in the distance.  “Wow…that’s what a mountain looks like.”

“That’s Mount Deathfire,” Venus said.  “To the Salamanders, it’s the most sacred place on Nocturne’s surface.  It was in the shadows of Deathfire that Dad first fought back against the Dark Eldar.  There’s a massive shrine and forging complex in its magma tunnels.”

“Sounds amazing,” Alex said.  Jake snugged his new sunglasses to his face and craned his head back, staring at the blue clouds in amazement.

“I feel like my world has been palette-shifted,” Jake said.  He stared up at the sky, watching the clouds move.  “Aren’t skies supposed to be blue?  And clouds gray?”

“Welcome to Nocturne,” Venus giggled.  “But yeah…it’s pretty amazing.”

The little group let itself be pulled into foot traffic, and they headed east.  The storefronts were still wet from the scourers, and the group carefully avoided the pools of water that were sluicing away into the drains.

After less than a block, Jake was already sweating.  “Man…you weren’t kidding about this heat,” he said.  He loosed his collar with a finger.  “This is crazy.”

“Are you going to be all right?” Alex asked.  Jake glanced over at the stocky rugby player.  Damn it, he wasn’t even sweating a drop.

“I think so, as long as we can get something to drink at this place,” he said.  “Aren’t you hot?”

Alex modestly shrugged.  “Compared to summer practices, this honestly isn’t so bad.  We had one guy drop from heatstroke once.”

“That’s encouraging,” Jake grumbled.  Venus, naturally, hadn’t even slowed down, and he made an effort to keep up.

As they walked, they people-watched.  The buildings were all squat, compact things, reinforced heavily.  They had little of the sweeping and spired architecture of Terra.  Instead, they seemed to be more focused on maximizing floor-space without compromising their considerable integrity.  On an earthquake-prone world, that was wise.

The people were an interesting mix.  Most tended to muscled and compact, with dark skin and reddish hair.  Eye colors spanned the whole rainbow, and nearly all clothing was loose leathers and artificial fabrics.  Venus’ companions drew some attention with their clearly Terran clothing, but the Nocturneans kept their comments to themselves.

As they approached the restaurant, the streets narrowed.  Buildings were taller here, presumably because they wouldn’t be threatened by the turrets on the castle.  Narrow alleyways formed between the buildings, too, and to Venus’ pronounced distaste, many were littered with half-dissolved refuse.  Apparently the locals just dumped anything damaged by the acid rain out back.

They arrived at the restaurant, which was really more of a food court.  As the group dispersed throughout the open room to select whatever reached their fancy, a few excited whispers began as someone recognized Venus despite her admittedly flimsy disguise.  By the time the five rejoined at a table, several people were openly staring.

Venus steadfastly refused to acknowledge any stares, and the few who looked like they were building up courage enough to actually approach and interrupt were quickly dissuaded with a quick glance.  As the group tucked into their fare, Remilia leaned over to her fiery cousin with a conspiratorial whisper.

“You appear to have a few fans.”

Venus rolled her eyes behind her shades, which she had not removed.  “I expected as much.  People seem pretty well-behaved, though, by and large.”

“No worse than when we went out for dinner on Terra,” Jake said.  “Remember that time at Ciordello’s when that dude started to hit on you?”

“Oh man, that was so dumb.”  Venus ruefully shook her head.

“What did he do when he figured out who you were?” Freya giggled.

“Oh, if anything, this activated him further,” Venus said.

Alex glanced over at Jake.  “What did you during all this?”

“Try not to laugh,” Jake said.  “It didn’t work.  He’s just sitting there, trying to put moves on her, she’s just glaring at him harder and harder, and I’m on her other side trying not to inhale my soda.”

“Then, he hears Jake laughing and starts getting all angry at him, trying to glare at him over my head,” Venus continued.  “Jake is just sitting there giggling-”

“I was not giggling!”

“-And finally the other guy half-stands in his seat, bobbing his head like a fucking rooster.  Jake is cracking up, and finally I reach over and get about an inch from his face and tell him that I’ll turn every bone in his torso to sawdust if he moves an inch for the rest of the night,” Venus finished.

“I love it,” Alex chuckled.  He smirked over at Jake, who was still looking indignantly at Venus for her affront to his manhood.  “So who wears the pants in this relationship?”

Jake turned to gape at his friend, all indignation.  “Hark who speaks!”

Alex slowly raised his eyebrows, but glanced over at his wolf-girl, Amazonian girlfriend and had to concede the point.  “…Touché.”  Freya batted her eyes innocently as Remilia laughed into her napkin.

As lunch wound down, Venus brought the check up to the counter, and the other four nursed their drinks in anticipation for heading back out into the heat.  “I’m surprised water isn’t rationed on a planet with toxic oceans and murder rain,” Jake said as she returned.

“I was too, until someone told me the size of the ice deposits on Prometheus.  They just rip glaciers up whole and drop them into purifiers in Clymene, one of the cities we’re going to visit,” Venus said.  “Then they just send them wherever they’re needed on the planet.  They don’t need to do that much, now, though, the population is pretty stable.”  She sank into her chair at the table and sighed contentedly.  “We chose well.”

“Yeah, this place was great.  I can’t even pronounce what I ordered, though,” Alex joked.

“It was sauroch flank.  A massive herd critter from out in the deserts,” Venus said.  “Good eats.  Dad brought some home once.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the plainclothesmen at their own table slide his fingers across the butt of his needle pistol.  Venus looked straight at him and cocked her head in silent question, feeling her heartbeat pick up.  He saw her glance his way and shook his head as the other serfs visibly relaxed.

Her shirt moved.  Venus glanced down to see a young girl – couldn’t have been more than three – standing awkwardly next to her chair, tugging her shirt.  She had one hand on her mouth, and was staring up at Venus in evident confusion.  Venus stared back through her shades.  “Hi.  Can I help you?” Venus asked.

“Stop that!” her mother hissed at the infant, grabbing her and lifting her up.  “Leave the Princess alone!”  The weary-looking woman took a few respectful steps back before starting to take a knee.

“Stop,” Venus said quietly, her voice hard as steel for an instant.  The woman froze.  “Sit down.  I don’t mind.  And I wouldn’t be here in disguise if I wanted people kneeling.”

“Uh…all right, sorry, your Highness,” the woman said, sitting back down at the table next to the little group.

Venus smiled to take the sting out of her words.  “She’s a cutie.  What’s her name?”

“Ly’Sung,” the mother said.

“Nice.”  Venus grinned broadly at the baby before turning back to her own group.  “You guys ready to head out?”

“Sure,” Freya said, standing and stretching.  “Where to now?”

“Dunno.  Castle first.  Then I want to go see the shops a bit,” Venus said.  She leaned over to Ly’Sung, still clinging to her mother.  “Bye.”

The baby stared silently at her as her mother managed a nervous smile.

Outside, the group started back to the castle.  Jake turned to look at Venus through his own shades.  “You made a friend.”

“I did.”  Venus smiled.  “I don’t remember her making a sound the entire time.  I wish all kids were that well-behaved.”

“She still grabs strangers,” Jake chuckled.

“Eh, can’t win ‘em all.”

Remilia slung an arm around her shorter cousin’s shoulders, gesturing broadly.  “They just want to acknowledge their Queen.”

“Bah,” Venus scoffed, shrugging her cousin off.

As they walked back to the castle, the wind picked up considerably.  The temperature rose with it, until Jake and Alex both were panting.  Freya and Remilia – iceworlders both – were looking pretty overheated as well.  As they arrived at the castle, Jake actually stopped to lean on the doorway.  The serfs on either side of the entrance both looked at him askance.

“You all right, baby?” Venus asked, glancing over her shoulder as she heard him stop.

“No,” he managed.  “This…this is bad.”

“Do you need to sit down?” Venus said worriedly, walking up to him and taking his free hand.

“I need to lie down,” he said, sweat pouring off of his head.  “And have a haircut, and an ice bath,” he continued as he slowly followed her to the lifts.




===Recuperating===

Venus guided both boys into the lifts and hit the button for their floor.  Before the door could slide shut, however, a man outside slid a hand into the closing gap. “Just made it,” he sighed.

Freya tapped the Open button and he slipped in.  “Thank you…oh.  Your Highnesses,” he said, inclining his head politely.  “Adjutant Governor Enike, at your humble service.”

“Ah, Governor, nice to meet you,” Venus said, shaking his hand.  “I expect we’ll see each other at the dinner tonight, then.”

“Indeed.”  The Governor peered at the two swooning men at the back of the car.  “Are your companions well, your Highness?”

“No,” Alex managed.  “You people are tough as nails to survive in this heat.”

“Where are you from, Sieur?” Enike asked.

“Terra,” Jake supplied for both.  He wasn’t looking dead on his feet any more, but he was still looking pretty grim.

“Ah.  Yes.  That would do it,” the Governor said unapologetically.  “Well.  Good thing you’re here in winter time, eh?” he asked.  Jake boggled.

The lift opened, and Enike walked out.  “See you tonight, your Highness,” he said, bowing out now that he had room to do so.  As the lift doors closed, both men rounded on Venus.

“Winter?!” Jake asked.

“Yeah, it’s the dead of winter outside.  Didn’t you wonder why so many people had long pants on?” Venus asked.  Alex slumped back against the cool metal of the elevator.

“You people are insane,” he muttered.

“I will admit, any colony group that looked at Nocturne and concluded ‘Yep, that’s a good idea!’ was probably high on something,” Venus said.  “But then, the planet was nicer in the ancient past.  There were actual forests in some places.  We should fly over the Petrified Forests if we have time.”
The doors parted.  The group walked back to their rooms.  Jake flopped unceremoniously down on their bed the moment he unlocked the door.  Venus walked in behind him and gestured at the air conditioner.  As the frigid air wafted over his prone body, he groaned into the covers.  “Outstanding.  Thank you, baby.”

Venus sat down on the mattress next to his head.  “Are you going to be all right?”

“I need to change and shower, badly.  But…yeah.”  He turned his head to stare at her shapely backside.  “Listen…baby…I’m sorry about before.”

“What do you have to be sorry for?” she asked.

“I may have sounded like I can’t appreciate what Nocturne means to you.”  He sat up.  “I’m saying I didn’t mean to insult you by saying you were addicted to the feeling of coming home.  That’s all, really.”

She nodded once.  “No apologies necessary.  You’re right.  It did feel like a physical change.  The one who needs to be sorry is me.  I didn’t even think of how a hiver’s body would react to the ambient heat here.”  She squeezed his hand.  “I’m afraid this month is going to kind of suck.”

“I brought thermo gear.  I just wasn’t expecting to have to wear it in the cities.”  He kissed her on the forehead and squeezed her hand back.  “Are we both done feeling sorry?”

“I think so,” Venus said.

He squeezed her hand again.  “Great.  Make-up sex?”

“Oh, shut up,” she sighed, melodramatic.  “Go have a shower and cool down.  I’m going to go explore the town a bit.”

“Will you be all right by yourself?” he asked as she stood.

“Sure.  There’s a plainclothes detail with me.  And Remilia and Freya will be coming with me,” she said.  “I’ll be back after dinner.  This isn’t a hotel, exactly, but they house dignitaries all the time here, so just order room service.  Or, hell, come to the banquet if you want.”

“I didn’t bring anything formal,” Jake pointed out.

“Mmm.”  She looked back at him as he wearily peeled his shirt off.  “You’ll let me know if the weather really is too much, right?”

“I will.  It’s the gravity and pressure that are making it unbearable, really.  The air in here now isn’t bad at all,” he said.  “But with heat on top…”

She pursed her lips, trying to think of a solution.  None came to mind.  “Well…I’ll be back as soon as I can get away from the dinner.  You might want to just watch some holovision or maybe write a letter to your parents.  Didn’t you promise that you were going to write when you arrived?”

Jake nodded.  “I did.”  He turned to the bathroom, and Venus took a moment to admire his back.

“Alex’s workout routine did you a turn,” she said approvingly.

“Yeah, I’ve lost six pounds since we left Terra,” Jake said.  “Probably gained it back with lunch, though, oof.”

“Hah!  Well, working out in 1.3G would be hard on your system, so if you guys go to the gym in the basement, take it easy, all right?” she asked.  She grabbed her wallet and slid it back in her pocket.

“Is that where it is?  I’ll let him know.”  Jake paused with his hand on the bathroom door.  “You go have fun.”

“I will.”  She blew him a kiss and closed the door.  Remilia wandered out of her own room, looking freshly scrubbed.  “Hey!  You want to go out shopping for a while?” Venus asked.

Remilia thought.  “Uh…sure.  That sounds fun.  Shopping for what?”

“Oh, just hitting the city.  It’s hardly Startseite, but I want to see what people on my planet wear and eat and do for fun,” Venus said eagerly.

Her cousin nodded.  “I’d love to.  Freya in?”

Venus listened for a moment, heard the telltale sound of someone putting shoes on from Freya’s room.  “I think so…yep,” she said as Freya opened the door.

Remilia looked at her.  “You heard her coming?”

“I heard her get her shoes on.  You didn’t?” Venus asked.

“I didn’t hear a thing,” Remilia said, an odd tone in her voice.  “Must not be used to the air pressure yet.”

“What’s up?” Freya asked as she wandered up to the others.

“We’re going shopping, I think.  You ready to go?” Venus asked.

“I’m in!” Freya exclaimed.  “What’s that about hearing something?”

“I heard you getting ready to come out,” Venus said.  “That’s odd, apparently.”

“Well…it wouldn’t have been odd on Terra,” Remilia allowed.  “Maybe you’re just used to Nocturne already?”

“I guess,” Venus said.  “Anyway.  We passed some stuff I’d love to check out on our way to the restaurant.  Where do you want to go first?”

Freya thought for a moment.  “That little market on the first street we passed, I think.”

“Works for me,” Remilia said, putting her cousin’s preternatural hearing aside.

Jake stepped out of the shower, toweling off.  The steam in the bathroom wasn’t dispersing, even with the fan at full blast.  He opened the door into the bathroom, and the mist started to clear.  With a sigh, he finished drying and grabbed some clean clothes.  “Volcanic worlds, man.”

Bathroom rituals accomplished, the tall hiver walked into the main room and pulled his slate out.  He tapped a few runes on the front of it and dropped it on the bed.  “Record,” he said aloud.  The slate’s screen blinked and a large red circle filled the middle of the screen.

“Hey, Mom, Dad.  We’re safe on Nocturne.  We’re on the closest thing the planet has a to a formal capital, Hesiod.  It’s incredible, you guys.  The sun here is RED.  The sky looks like blood.  The clouds are blue.  It’s fucking opposite day up there.”  He stood in the middle of the bedroom speaking clearly for the transcription package.  “The flight was fine.  I took exquisite pleasure in unnerving the senior crew with my humble origins.  They never see it coming.  Apparently you need to be a noble to date a Primarch’s daughter, who knew?”  He crossed his arms, thinking of the flight.  “You would have liked a lot of the guys we met, though.  The actual ride was smooth, except for the Warp transitions.  Those completely sucked.

“We’re safe and sound, though,” he continued.  “Alex has been a complete bro.  He’s given me all kinds of workout advice.  Lost six pounds in nine days, fuck yeah.”  He grinned at the slate. “Not much else to do on a ship.”

“I dunno if Venus has already sent home a message, but if she didn’t…you guys need to see the speech she gave the people here.  It was breathtaking.  And that uniform!  Holy shit, you guys, that uniform of hers is fucking awesome.  I seriously need to get one of those.”  He paused as someone rapped on the door.  “Pause,” he said aloud.  When the slate beeped, he walked to the door and peeked out.  Alex was waiting outside.

Jake opened the door.  “What’s up, man?  I’m composing a message for my parents,” he said.

“Shit, sorry,” Alex said.  “I can come back.”

“What’s up?” Jake repeated.

Alex sighed and walked in.  “Jake…this shit is out of hand.”

“What?” Jake asked.

“This weather is going to fucking kill us.  What do we do?” Alex asked, slumping into a chair by the door.  “I’ve seen athletes drop from heatstroke in this weather without even getting hit, man.  Terrans can not handle this planet.”

“And this is winter,” Jake added.  “I don’t know.  Genetic conditioning is all I can think of.”

“You can’t afford that,” Alex pointed out.

Jake closed the door.  “I know.”

Alex sighed heavily.  “All I can think is that we stay on the ship.”

“For a MONTH?  Not acceptable.  We’d be wasting a fortune in Navy assets just moving from surface to space that many times, and I’m not trusting my soul to a fucking teleporter,” Jake said emphatically.  “I say we gut it out as long as we can, and if it’s really unbearable, we stay on Prometheus.”

Alex squinted at him.  “Jake, when I was in freshman year, I saw a junior on the soccer team fall over, out like a light, in practice.  We all ran up to him.  He was out from heatstroke.  When he woke up in the hospital, he said he remembered feeling over-heated and dizzy.  How did you feel in the street today?”

“Pretty much like that,” Jake admitted.

“Right.”  Alex fidgeted.  “Look…we all brought thermoprotective kit.  I thought I’d only use it in the deserts, but…”

“Yeah.”  Jake glanced over at the thermo gear in his bag.  “Yeah.  We wear it around, then.”

“It’ll be a little embarrassing, but it’s better than hospitalization,” Alex said.  “Well.  Anyway.  I should let you get back to your letter.”

“Unpause,” Jake said aloud.  “Sorry about that, guys.  Alex just dropped by to say something.”

“Uh, hi, Seager family,” Alex chuckled.  “Alex Carlin here.  Dunno if we ever met.”  Jake winked at him as he stood up to go.

“Shit weather aside, Nocturne itself is amazing,” Jake said as Alex walked back to his own room.  “The people here live so closely with the Salamanders.  It’s not a thing like back home with the Imperial Fists.  We had breakfast with a few Salamanders this morning, and they were just chatting with us like…well, like normal people.  It was great.”  He glanced at the timer on the slate’s screen.  “I don’t want to take up more than my fair shot of Astropathic time.  So…I guess I’ll talk to you later.  Goodbye,” he said.  “Stop.”

He bundled the message and hit Transcript.  In a few seconds, the slate beeped, and the transcription popped up on the screen.  After fixing a few errors, he tapped into the line on the wall, grateful for having the master suite, and sent it off to the Astropathic temple in Aethonion.

===Green Light: GO SHOPPING!===

Venus ran her hands over the fine fabric of the shirt on the rack.  “Oooh.  I like,” she said under her breath.  She glanced at the price tag and lifted an eyebrow above her mirrored shades at the cost.  “Cheaper than dirt!  Awesome.”  She lifted the shirt and carried it up to the vendor at the front of the tiny market booth.  “I’ll take it,” she said happily.

“My honor, Princess!” the vendor said.

Venus sighed patiently.  “I mean I’ll buy it,” she said, brandishing a money card like a sword.

“Oh…well, I would be…all right, your total comes to seventeen credits,” the vendor said hesitantly.  Venus swiped the fifty thousand cred card through the reader.

“Thanks,” she said, walking out before the vendor could complain.

“Oh ho, refusing graft, are you, Princess?  How principled,” Remilia joked from the door.

“Bite me,” Venus grumbled.  “Why do I even wear these shades if people can see my eyes through them?  I should just get a bionic visor or something.”

“You best be kidding.  I would kill for those eyes,” Remilia said.

“Eh.  I was.  And it’s my own fault for thinking people wouldn’t recognize me after a speech like the one today,” Venus said.  Freya meandered up from the next booth over, some little icon in her hands.  “What you got there?”

“A ske-run sculpture,” Freya said excitedly.  “Check this out!”  She passed the tiny stone sculpture to her cousin.

“That’s a sa’hrk, not a ske-run,” Venus said.  “It’s for the better, trust me.  Ske-run are what sa’hrk eat.”

“Oh.”  Freya’s face fell.  “Well, that’s good too.”

Venus grinned.  “You want to head back now, or keep shopping?  You appear to have…acquired some lucre already,” she noted, staring at the bulging fanny pack Freya was wearing.

“Let’s head back, actually,” Freya said.  “I feel bad for ditching the boys.  And I want to get this stuff packed.”

“Okay.  You know the way?” Venus asked.

“You’re not coming with?” Remilia asked.

“No.  I want to stay a bit longer and just…talk.  You know?  Find out what my people are like.”  Venus smiled at the processions of people on the street.

“Sure thing.  See you after dinner,” Remilia said.  Both of the paler girls walked back to the castle, a plainclothesman discreetly breaking off to follow.

Venus turned back to the crowds, watching in silence.  A group of merchant trawlers was hawking their wares at the large table in the middle of the market.  As she watched, one swept a pile of goods into a black plastic box and passed it along to family that had paused at their table.

“My Princess?” a voice at her shoulder murmured.  She glanced back to see one of the plainclothesmen standing behind her.  “If you’d like to explore the market, we could have someone send your purchases back to the castle.”

“Thanks.  I think I’m good,” she said.  “I won’t be out too much longer before the dinner.”

“As you wish, your Highness,” the man whispered, disappearing back into the crowds.

Venus turned and walked along the rows of booths along the outer edge of the market.  The beautiful assortment of exotic jewelry in one booth caught her eye.  A natural jeweler herself, she cast her stare over a row of magnificent silver coins.  They were blank in the middle and had tiny sparkles along the edges – diamond dust, maybe.

“Remarkable craftsmanship,” she said softly.

“Thanks, dear,” the fellow behind the counter said.  For a miracle, he seemed not to recognize her.  “I can emboss your picture on one for six hundred credits extra.”

“By hand?” she asked.

“No, no, that takes forever.  I use a press and scrape the details by hand, though.”

“Heh.  I like those too,” she said, gesturing at a coiling silvery necklace on another table.  “Is that electrum?  What’s it’s proportion?”

“Good eye.  It’s electrum, all right.  I hacked the rocks out of a lode my sister sent me.  40-59-1, gold-silver-copper,” the man said.  “Try it on.”

“Really?” she asked.  She ran her finger gingerly over the coiled links.  “Well…” she set her shirt down and lifted the beautiful necklace, holding it over her chest and glancing in a mirror on the cloth wall of the booth.

“It’s gorgeous,” she said quietly.

“It’s yours for forty thousand credits,” the man said.

Venus set it down on the stand again.  “No, thank you, sir.  But…ooh.  Is that a heliotrope ring?” she asked.

“It is.  You know your rocks, dear.”

“I do.”  She lifted the ring.  “The balance is perfect.  How did you balance the set with such an asymmetric rock?” she asked.

“Patience.  Lots of patience.”

“Bloodstone is my birthstone,” Venus said.

“Pardon?”

“I live on Terra.  On Terra, certain gems and rocks correlate with your birth month.  I was born on March 20th, so I’m bloodstone, heliotrope,” Venus said.  “My boyfriend was born on June 29th, so he’s Catseye,” she explained.  “Don’t suppose you’ve got any yellow cymophanes?”

“I just might,” the man said, reaching under the display case and rooting around.  “Hmm…no rings…just a stone,” he said, pulling a gorgeous yellow gem from under the counter.

Venus smiled.  “Name your price, sir, on the ring and the stone.”

“Hmm…the stone is cut, and ready to balance.  I’ll say five thousand six hundred.  The ring was a lot of fun, and you don’t see heliotrope this far from the Dragonspine…I’ll say four thousand five hundred fifty.  Comes to ten thousand, one hundred fifty.  Taxes make it ten thousand, nine hundred sixty eight and eight cents.”

“Sir, please.  The stones aren’t even symmetrical.  I’ll give you ten thousand even for the set,” Venus said.

“Miss, you might be able to haggle with the meatmongers across the way, but I know the value of my wares, and your total is 10,968.08 credits,” the man said patiently.

Venus shrugged.  “I can’t argue with that.”  She swiped her card at the reader and lifted the gems.  “So…where did you study, sir?”

“Under my father.  My family’s been turning chunks of this misbegotten little piece of hell into artworks since you could count the stars within the Imperium with two hands,” the man said, with the quiet pride of a career craftsman.  “My son and one of my grandsons are just as good.”

“Truly?  Good for you,” Venus said.

“Yes…my youngest grandson entered the Salamanders.  He’s a Techmarine now,” the man said with unmistakable delight.

“Wow.  Good on him.  What’s his name?” Venus asked as she slid both jewels into a pouch and tied it shut.

“Hasdreth.  Tech-brother Hasdreth Liun,” the craftsman said.

“Oh yeah!  He studied on Mars, in the Seminary of the Guiding Machine,” Venus said as relevant memories returned.  “I met him once at a dinner party.”

“You…met him?” the old fellow asked, baffled.  “How?”

Venus looked at him over the edge of her mirrored glasses and winked cheerfully.  “I’m a Salamander too.”

“Oh my…Princess Venus, I’m deeply honored,” the man said.  “I…suppose I don’t have to ask where you made all your jewelry, at least,” he joked weakly.

Venus laughed warmly.  “Indeed.  I’m following the family craft as well.  Of course Dad’s creations tend to kill things instead of make them pretty.”

“Present company excepted, I’m sure, your Highness,” the jeweler said.

“You’re too kind.”  She stuck out a hand to shake.  The jeweler hesitantly took it, and Venus shook his hand briskly.  “Thank you, sir.  Good day.”

“I’ll treasure this day, your Highness.  And welcome home,” he said, bowing his head as she left his shop.

Venus glanced back at the sun, high in the sky, and grinned.  “It does feel good,” she said softly.

A loud rattling noise from in front of her drew her attention back down to the surface.  A group of local police – Enforcers, they were called, Venus remembered, like in the Hives back home – were cordoning off a small road bridge between two parts of the market.  She wandered over to take a peek.
“Come on, folks, move along,” one Enforcer said.

“What happened here?” she asked the man next to her.

“Robbery,” the man muttered.  “Nobody got hurt.  Some tourist with a pistol slid in to a booth on the far side, demanded money, and ran for it.”

“Revolting,” Venus said coldly.

“Yeah.  Fucking tourists,” the man grumbled, surprising Venus.  Before she could say a word, he had turned on his heel and walked away, cloak billowing.
Venus stared.  He was more upset about the foreigner than the robbery?  She looked for a detour around the bridge and found one, skirting around the Enforcer quarantine and emerging in a similar section of market, this one focusing more on the essentials; food and housewares predominated.  Venus casually meandered up to the Enforcer line, which was now brimming with locals looking for answers.

A few Enforcers were gingerly guiding a clearly shell-shocked stall owner to a sheltered seat, while some others were examining the booth and asking questions of a witness.  Venus stared.  That sort of crime was all but unheard of in Startseite.  From the reactions of the people around her, it was rare here too.

“Ought to hang the vermin by his balls from the Walls of Hesiod, let him fry,” a woman next to her growled.  “Offworlders don’t know what it’s like trying to hack a living from the crust of hell.”

“Or just don’t care.  I suspect foreign criminals are just as greedy as Nocturnean criminals,” joked the man to whom she was talking.

“Whatever.”

Venus backed up, sensing that her presence would have been unnecessary.  Even as she started to leave, however, the woman who had been robbed glanced to the side and spotted her.  Her eyes flew open.

Venus’ finger shot to her lips, gesturing for quiet.  The woman stared, clearly traumatized, but nodded.  Without a word, Venus turned and slid back across the detour bridge, making for the castle.  Suddenly, she didn’t feel like shopping.

Jake was reading his slate when a knock came on the door.  “Come,” he said, setting it down.

Venus opened the door and walked in.  “Afternoon, Jake.”

“Hey, baby.  You’re back early,” he said.  He stood up and walked into the sitting room.  “Thought you’d be out mingling.”

“I was.  Lost my appetite when I saw a robbery.  I wanted to come back and give you a hug,” she said, squeezing him tight.  He planted a kiss on her forehead.

“Sounds scary.”

“Nobody was injured, but yeah, it was.”

“Well…I sent a message to my parents.  I’ve got the afternoon free if you want to do something else,” he said.

“No, thanks, I need to get dressed for the dinner,” Venus said, dropping her shirt on the couch.  “But…look at this,” she said, pulling the bloodstone ring from her pocket.

“Oh, wow.  It’s pretty,” Jake said, taking the ring.  “What stone is that?”

“It’s bloodstone.  Heliotrope.  My birthstone,” she said.  “I was thinking I might wear it to the dinner if I decide not to wear the gloves.”

“It’s really cool.  Where did you get it?” Jake asked, following her into the bedroom.

“A jeweler’s shop in the market.”  Venus halted when she saw his thermoreflective gear and water pouch on the bed.  “You going spelunking in a lava vent, baby?”

“Yes, it’s called ‘walking outdoors in Hesiod,’” Jake said.  “No offense, Venus, but I nearly had a heart attack on the way back from lunch.  I’m wearing that tomorrow.”

“Oh.”  Venus shrugged.  “Your call.  We’ll just be tourist-ing again.”

“No problem in looking like a tourist if you are one,” Jake said.

“Aye aye.”  Venus grabbed the armor stand and rolled it into the bathroom.  “Be back in a bit.”

As she shut the door, Remilia poked her head in the door to the sitting room.  “Knock knock.”

“Hey, Remilia, come on in,” Jake said.  “You just get back too?”

“No, I’ve been back for a while.  It’s getting close to dinner time, you want to go grab something?” she asked.

“Love to.  I’ll call room service,” Jake said.

“I meant out.  In the city,” Remilia said.

Jake winced.  “Uh…well, I didn’t handle the heat so good today.”

“We’ll take a car.  Come on, my treat,” she said insistently.  Jake gave in, his hunger outweighing his reluctance.

“Sure, let me just tell Venus where I’m going,” he said.  He raised his voice.  “Venus, I’m headed out to dinner with Remilia.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tonight,” Venus’ muffled voice came from the bathroom.

===A Revelatory Night===


Jake reclined in the spacious seat of the diplomatic car Remilia had requested.  How she had convinced the castle staff to let them borrow it, he didn’t care to guess.  Remilia herself was sitting beside him on the backseat of the car, trying in vain to encode her portable vox to the local network.  “No good,” she grumbled.  “The bloody local nets are all four generations behind on cell codes.  I’ll never get a signal.”

“I had the same problem.”  Jake glanced over at Remilia, who had selected a nicely cut silver shirt and conservative pants for the occasion.  “You look nice.  How are you not dying of heat?  You’re from Inwit!”

“Good genes,” she said with a shrug.  “I’ll still be wearing thermos tomorrow.”

“Me too,” Jake said emphatically.

The car halted in front of a small restaurant by the outer edge of the city walls, and the servitor at the drivers’ seat turned the vehicle off with a clatter of cooling metal.  Remilia and Jake emerged to find the air much cooler, but still boiling by Terran standards.  They walked the short way to the restaurant and entered, and to Jake’s infinite relief, it was even cooler inside.

“My Lady Dorn, my Lord, welcome,” the woman at the front desk said.  “How may I serve you?”

“A table for two with a bit of a draft,” Remilia said, smiling politely.  “And a steady flow of ice water.”

“Yes, indeed…do follow me,” the hostess said, leading the pair into the building.

Alex finished changing and slid his wallet into his pocket.  “As soon as you’re ready, babe,” he called.

“Hold up…there,” Freya said from the other room.  She emerged decorated with the single tiny sapphire she had decided to purchase that afternoon hanging from her neck.  “Where do you want to go?”

“Somewhere close to the castle,” Alex said.  “Maybe that steakhouse you saw at the market?”

“Sure, let’s head out,” Freya replied.  As she said it, a familiar red light filled the main room.

“Hey, kids, I’m out of here,” Venus called.  “You two sure you don’t just want room service?”

“We can save that for a rainy day.  For now, let’s experience Nocturnean cuisine,” Freya said.  She eyed her shorter cousin’s formal uniform, replete with weapons.  “No crown this time?  A shame.”

“Oh hush, that thing is for times when I need to look regal instead of just important,” Venus chided.  “Besides, I’m going to replace the guy I’m dining with tonight, I want to be able to look him in the eye.”

“Right.”  Freya nipped her cousin’s ear on the way out the door.  “Knock ‘em dead.”

“Not yet, they need to stay active until I take office and fire them all,” Venus said nonchalantly.  Freya started.  “A joke, a joke.”

Jake dug into his appetizer, grateful that Remilia had chosen a place with Terran-style food.  “Good call, Remilia,” he said.

“Thanks.  Apparently this is The Place to Go when Terran diplomats are in town,” Remilia said.  “I think a Lady Primarch qualifies.”

Jake grinned over his riblets.  “Man…that gets me.”

“Huh?”

“At what point did rubbing shoulders with the most powerful people in the galaxy become something I do over dinner?” he laughed to himself.  Remilia half-grinned.

“When you got a scholarship to Imperator.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”  Jake leaned back, sipping his water.  “Thanks for this.”

“My pleasure,” Remilia said with a smile.  “So…what do you think of Venus’ homeworld?”

“Amazing place.  The weather, the people, the architecture…amazing.”  Jake nodded at his own wisdom.  “It’s a proud world.”

“It is.”  Remilia nicked one of his riblets and chewed.  “I want to go see the place they call the Jewel.  It’s a city in the middle of an acid ocean.”

“We’re going there soon, though, right?  Four days per city, then two extra in the last one and then off to Fenris,” Jake said from memory.

“Yep.”  Remilia finished the rib and wiped her fingers.  “I’m glad to see you taking to Alex’s tutelage.”

“Mmm.  Muscles, flex,” Jake said deeply, clenching his neck.  Remilia snorted into her drink.

“You want to get into a contest, buddy, you ain’t gonna win.”

“Hmph.  No fair.  You can kick a hole in rebarred concrete,” Jake grumbled.

Alex downed his first beer and tapped the rim for another as the waitress walked by.  “Thanks.”  He waited until she was out of earshot before sighing.  “Thank goodness the legal age is seventeen here.”

“Heh.  Not too much.  You need to be lucid,” Freya scolded.

“I won’t splurge.”  Alex let his eyes wander across the room.  “I feel overdressed.”

“Eh.”  Freya shrugged her bare shoulders, and her braids fell across her pale flesh most distractingly.  “We’re not hiding our tourist origins.  Embrace them.”

Alex chuckled.  “Right.  You think we’ll get to see some of the Salamander bases?”

“I hope so.  The Wolves and the Salamanders can’t be much more different, tactically.  I want to see how everything else is different, too,” Freya said eagerly.  She grinned, flashing her fangs in the low light of the room.  “Beyond the superficial.”

“Yeah?  How do they operate differently?” Alex asked.

Freya counted on her fingers.  “We don’t use Terminators as much, they rebuild reduced squads, they don’t use speeders or other fast movers, they have Chaplains, we have fewer Thunderhawks by half…tons and tons of stuff.”

Alex cocked his head.  “You keep saying ‘we.’  Do you think of yourself as a Space Marine?”

“I may not be able to wear Power Armor or absorb knowledge by eating brains, but I’m a Wolf.”  She nodded cheerfully.  “The year and a half I spent on Fenris as a kid were some of the the happiest years of my life.  When I went back, it was even better.  I can’t wait to go back again.”  She smiled again.  “You’ll love it.”

Jake cut a piece free from his sauroch flambé and bit in.  “Delicious,” he said.

Remilia sipped her wine, nodding appreciatively.  “It is.”  She finished her starter bread and dug in to her own entrée.  “To answer your question, no.  I would like to be able to play after college, but I don’t have a team in mind.  Frankly, I’ll probably just go into politics.”

“You hate politics,” Jake pointed out.

“I completely loathe politics,” Remilia grumbled.

“Then don’t!  Start a business or something,” Jake said.  “You get to pick.  You know how few Terrans get to pick?  Go into the private sector.”

“Like what?” Remilia asked.

Jake shrugged, biting into his sauroch.  “You’re awesome with money.  You could start an accounting firm.  Or go into the Army and lead the Quartermasters’ Corps.  You’re too smart to waste your time on something you hate.”

“Thanks, Jake,” Remilia said, touched.

“I mean it.  Go travel.  Find a world inside Imperial Fists territory that’s in the middle of an economic downturn and build it back up.  Or hell, go Rogue Trader.  Live like a queen,” Jake continued.

“‘Remilia Dorn, Corsair Queen,’” Remilia said aloud.  “That…is amazingly appealing.”

“I can see it.  You could have a servo-skull follow you around and record it all.  Sell holos on the Network and make trillions,” Jake joked.

“Stop making sense!” Remilia said plaintively.

Venus held her plate of nibbles with one hand, the other resting on the hilt of her scabbarded Power Rapier.  “Governor, as much as I’d like to say that that’s in the cards, no.”

“Ah, your Highness, you wound me,” the Governor said sadly.  “I suppose you have your heart set?”

“I do indeed,” Venus said.  She had decided to tie her hair back in a ponytail that night, and had been laboring to project a feel of complete confidence to her audience.  “Kouthry.  On Terra.”

“I see,” the Governor said.  He and the leaders of all seven Sanctuaries, plus nearly a hundred lesser dignitaries, had assembled that night.  “Well, I’m sure it’s a good school.”

“My father and mother are both graduates, and my boyfriend is staff there,” Venus said proudly.  “I’m looking forward to it.”

“We had been hoping that you would pick a Nocturnean school, your Highness,” the well-muscled Governor said.  The man had been a PDF trooper in his youth, and had clearly kept up the exercise routine.  Venus found herself liking the man.

“Graduate school may happen.  We’ll see,” Venus allowed.  She plucked an hors d'oeuvre from her plate and bit in.  “I don’t know.”

“Ah well,” the Governor said.

“Governor Erd’Chel, please, do not misinterpret my intention,” Venus said.  “Nocturne is my home, and though Terra may house me, I will not forgo my heritage.”  She smiled tightly.  “I’ve not felt so alive as I have since I arrived.  Not in a long time.”

A robed man bearing the stylized I of the Scholastica Psykana walked up to the Governor and whispered something.  Venus’ supernatural hearing detected it verbatim.  “Governor, the echo is back.  I recommend a level five alert.”

“Do it,” the Governor said.  The psyker backed away, leaving the Governor grimacing.

“Something require an alert, Erd’Chel?” Venus asked mildly.

“Not at all, Venus,” the Governor said, deftly assuming the same informality as his guest.  Venus nodded contritely.  “At least not an alarm.”

“Do tell,” she said, downing another bite of imported Septiim liqueur fruit.

“A small radio echo.  We suspect that a Tier Y energy spike may be building in the sun,” the Governor explained.  “Nothing fatal, but worthy of immediate observation.”

“Of course, I apologize.”  Venus set her tray down and wiped her fingers clean on a napkin.  A paper napkin.  How much did THAT cost to import?  Finishing off her plate, she wandered off to the center of the floor, seeking a new speaking companion.

She spotted her old teacher Isaac across the room and smiled conspiratorially.  He returned it, winking over his drink, before resuming his conversation with the robed Salamander beside him.  The warrior had been silent for much of the night, including the toast to Venus, and Venus ambled over, wondering if he was familiar.

He was not.  The robed Space Marine nodded his respect to his Lady Primarch.  “Princess Venus.  An honor,” he rumbled.

“As you were, Marine.”  Venus inclined her head.  “I do not believe we have met.”

“I am Fletsun, my Princess, Master of Sanctity,” he said, surprising Venus deeply.  The fifth highest-ranking member of the entire LEGION was on-planet and she hadn’t been notified?

===Wining and Dining===

“I surprise you?” the Marine asked.

“Somewhat.  I had expected to be notified of your presence, Master,” Venus said.  “Do not mistake that for displeasure.  It is an honor to be in the presence of he who keeps the souls and discipline of my father’s Legion to task,” she added, genuflecting with her hand across her heart.

“The honor is mine, Princess.”  The ancient war cleric closed his eyes for a moment.  “I was overjoyed to hear of your return to us.  You were the size of my hand when you left us,” he said with the ghost of a smile on his coal-black lips.

Venus nodded ruefully.  “Indeed I was.  I have found my time on Terra to be both surprisingly trying and greatly rewarding, however.  I deem it time well spent,” she said, effortlessly switching to the Old Nocturnean tongue.  Fletsun nodded his approval of her mastery of the language.

“Good.  You have had the luxury of formal schooling?”

“Some.  I will return to Terra to complete it.  Or, rather, gain more.  I am genuinely considering graduate school here.  Medicine, perhaps, or the sciences.  I have the luxury of time as well,” Venus admitted.

“A luxury the Emperor’s gifts grant, and one few embrace properly,” the man said.  He smiled once more.  “Your Old Nocturnean sounds of recent practice.”

“Father insists that I maintain total fluency and literacy alike.  There are approximately ten speakers on Terra, however, so practice is elusive,” Venus confessed.  “I do not deny it.”  She raised a hand to her lips.  “It is a beautiful language.”  Her gloves were clasped to her belt for the duration of the meal.

“Indeed.”  The Salamander eyed her hand.  “A ring of engagement, my Princess?”

Venus laughed aloud.  “Were it but so!  But it is not.  A purchase of mine.  On Terra, ancient jewelers and artificers tied times to stones for luck and beauty.  The one that corresponds with my time of birth is the aptly-named bloodstone.”

“Fitting,” Fletsun said.  “You bear it well.  Do you pursue your father’s taste in artifice?”

“Vigorously!” Venus said proudly.

“As you should.”  Fletsun bowed again.  “I do not monopolize your time fairly.  Go.  Enjoy the adoration of your people.  I will be here.”

“Thank you, Venerable Shepherd,” Venus said, bowing deeply in return.  She turned back to the room with a spring in her heel.

Isaac watched her go.  “She has become strong and wise, Master.  She has defeated me outright in battle.  She has found a family to die for.  To live for.”

“Indeed.”  Fletsun watched her go as well, eyes burning like torches in his face.  “A fitting heir to her father.”

“No.  Not yet.  But when she is one, the galaxy will be bettered for it,” Isaac said quietly.

“You may be right, Isaac.”  Venus was chatting with a senior noble of the Skarokk mines now, projecting an easy confidence that only the soul-speaker and the warrior teacher could see was fraught with nerves and uncertainties of youth.  “But she will be soon.  Her father’s concern for her is the concern of a parent who feels his job unfinished.  That is a relief.”

“Oh?”

“Better he feel he has much left to teach her, at her youthful age, than nothing more to do,” the Chaplain said.  Isaac bowed his submission.

Alex finished his second beer and listened to the background noise in the steakhouse grow louder.  “I missin’ something?” he asked.

“No, people are talking about a rad alarm outside.  We’ll be fine if we’re indoors,” Freya said, her hearing providing the answer.  “How’s your sauroch?”

“Awesome.  These people know their grills,” Alex said.  “You want a bite?”

“Oog, no, I’m stuffed, thanks.”  Freya leaned back and tapped her belly.  “How about you?”

“I’m good.”  Alex watched as a pair of Enforcers walked past the entrance, yellow lights on their uniform vests flashing.  “They must be clearing the streets.”

“Sure looks that way.  I hope Remilia and Jake are all right.”

Alex nodded.  “So…am I crazy, or does Remilia like Jake a bit too much?”

“It’s just you.  He helped her get through some bad shit, remember?” Freya said.

“Right, that thing with her dad.”

“My advice?  Let it go,” Freya counseled.

“Done.”  Alex finished his entrée and sat back in his seat.  “Man that was good.  You want dessert, or should we head back before this radiation thing?”
“We should go,” Freya said, flagging the waitress.  The woman bustled up and deposited the check, bringing a few plates back with her.  Freya signed the check without even looking, dropping a card on it as she did.

Remilia stood in the doorframe of the restaurant, listening to the Enforcer beyond.  “Ma’am, the city is under rad-lock.  You may not exit the building,” the Enforcer said patiently.

“What’s a rad-lock?” Remilia asked.

The Enforcer bit back a sigh.  “It’s a lockdown because of a radiation alarm.  You’ll be perfectly safe in any building with a stone roof, but you may not go outdoors.”

“All right, we’ll wait it out.  Thank you, Officer,” Remilia said, walking back to where Jake and a number of other guests were gathering.  “Sorry guys, the lockdown won ‘t lift for a while.”

“Blast,” one man who looked like a merchant grumbled.  “We’re stuck here.”

“Seems it,” Remilia said.  Jake shrugged and pulled his vox out, flipping it on and booting a game.

“Might as well make the best of it,” he said.

Venus was making her way through the crowd, impressing various nobles, when the psyker she had noted before made his way over to the Governor again.  “Sir, the radspike is beginning.”

“Sound the alarm,” the Governor murmured, looking apprehensively out the window.

“Yes, Governor,” the psyker said, his eyes flashing.  For an instant, nothing happened.  Then, outside, yellow beacons lit, all across the city.  Venus’ eye wandered across the sea of yellow lights, reminded incongruously of images her father had once shown her of Nocturne before the Mechanicus had uplifted the Cities to their current grandeur.

The sky turned black, for just a moment.  Darker than the night that was coming, the sunset vanished behind a turbulent atmosphere.  Several guests grimaced and shielded their eyes.

Venus braced herself, unsure of what to expect.  Her skin prickled as the radspike hit.  She felt her heart pounding like a hammer in her ribcage, and the world turned a bit redder as her eyes grew so bright that the reflection overwhelmed her contact lenses.

Power surged through her.  Her armor felt constricting where before it had fit like a glove.  The weapons at her side seemed to sing to her.  The world around her sharpened.  She could hear the heartbeats of guests nearby accelerate as their bodies dealt with the radiation’s lingering heat.  The tiny cracks in the varnish in the floor refined themselves before her sight.

Her blood raced to her stomach, her arms, her legs, her eyes, her back.  She was ready to fight.  She was back in the ring with Isaac and spinning in Ir’Sem’s arms, and she was back before No’dan and in bed with Jake watching her world twirl on the wall.

Her breath was loud, unsteady.  A hand fell on her back as Governor Erd’Chel moved up behind her.  She had heard his breath and heartbeat as he had approached, and it unnerved her.  She normally couldn’t do that, at least not in a room so crowded.

“Princess?  Are you all right?” he asked, a note of distinct worry in his even voice.

Venus straightened up.  Erd’Chel took a step back from the raging inferno in her eyes.  “I am well, Governor.  Thank you for your concern,” she said.  Her voice was rich and resonant.  Her concerns melted away.  She projected an absolute confidence she had never felt, and found it real.

“Good, Princess, I was concerned when you nearly dropped your plate,” the Governor said, eyeing the plate that teetered on the edge of the table next to her.

“Sorry.”  Venus’ suddenly radiant eyes searched the room, casting red across it.  The other guests were all back to normal, talking, snacking, dancing.  None seemed to share her exhilaration and power.

She turned back to Erd’Chel and saw every weak point in his posture.  Every place she could hit him to cripple or kill.

She smiled.  “I’ve never felt that before.”

“It’s a fact of life around here,” Erd’Chel sighed.  Behind him, Fletsun stared at Venus, his own eyes suddenly ablaze.

Alex walked out of the restaurant as the beacons died.  “Glad that’s over,” he said, a faint slur in his words.

“Yeah, that was a whole lot of no fun,” Freya said, following him down the street.  “You nauseous?”

“Naw.  Little drunk, but I’m good.”  Alex walked carefully down the empty streets as night lamps kicked on overhead.  “I am so full right now.”

“Yeah.”  Freya walked up beside him and squeezed his hand playfully.  “Not too full, I hope?”

“Not even a little,” Alex happily said.

“Good.”  Freya released his hand and pointed up into the sky.  “You see that?”

Alex squinted.  “That a space station?”

“I think it’s Prometheus Station,” Freya said, focusing her eyes.  “It’s big enough anyway.”

“Huh.”  Alex shivered.  “Is it just me, or did it get a lot cooler?”

“That bigass ball of fire over there is going away; yeah it’s cooler,” Freya laughed.  “You should have stopped after one beer, featherweight.”

“Oh, baby, that hurts,” Alex said, wounded.


Jake stuck his hands in his pockets and breathed the evening air deep.  “Everything smells so clean here,” he said.  “How, I don’t know, with all the acid in the water and radiation in the air.”

“I suspect it’s the absence of a trillion humans underground,” Remilia joked, joining him at the curbside.  “You ready to head out?”

“You bet.”  She grinned at her sidelong.  “Thanks for dinner.”

“My pleasure.”  Remilia’s own smile faded a bit.  “Do you think I should send a message home?”

“Absolutely.  Warp travel is scary as hell.  Let your parents know you’re all right,” Jake counseled.

“Yeah, I should.”  Remilia leaned sideways on Jake’s shoulder for a second, and Jake reached across to squeeze her back.  “I like your advice.”

“Make me first mate on your pirate queen flotilla,” Jake quipped.

“Hah!  You’ll be busy being Prince of Nocturne,” Remilia laughed.  Jake shook his head as they walked back to their car.

“Why do people assume that I’m already some sort of noble all the time?  I don’t even look like one.”

“And I do?”

“Yes!  Look at you!” Jake said.

“Hmph.  You should ask Venus about Nocturnean matrimonial law, Jake.  It might surprise you,” Remilia hinted.  Jake cocked an eyebrow.

Venus marched straight up to Fletsun and spoke.  “Master.  What is happening?” she demanded in Old Nocturnean.

“Your blood stirred when you felt the radiation from our sun reach you,” the old Master rumbled.  “We all feel it.”

“What IS it?” she asked urgently.

“The geneseed at the heart of you reacts with the radiation of our world, as it did for Lord Primarch Vulkan himself,” Fletsun said.  “You strengthen.  Our connection with our world is as real and visceral as our bodies themselves.”

Venus clenched a fist.  “I do not like this power.  It smacks of addiction and drugs,” she said coldly.

“You do not like it because it is unfamiliar.  No harm comes of it.  Your father drank of this world for three thousand, six hundred years, and he is no weaker for his time abroad,” Fletsun pointed out.

He rested a hand on Venus’ shoulder, speaking quietly.  “You are stronger here.  You are whole here.  The gifts of your father and grandfather can be used to their fullest here.  Do not be afraid of it.  Embrace it.”

The black-haired girl stared up at the old Master, and Isaac, silent beside them, and finally relented.  “No harm comes of it?  No drawback?”

“None whatsoever,” Fletsun said.  “Our Librarians have studied it for the length of the Crusade, and found no downside.  It is the blood of Nocturne pulsing within you.”  He stood tall and spoke faintly, but with infinite conviction.  “Child of the Forge, our connection to our people is more than mere altruism and pragmatism.  Our world is a literal part of us.  Our sun fuels our blood.”

“You can not accept your responsibilities until you understand that,” Isaac added.

Venus looked from one man to the other.  “I see.”

“That is why we are kin to the Nocturneans.  We are their brothers, not their masters,” Fletsun said.  “Their souls and lives are forged by the unrelenting cruelties of their home.  They rise above it, and become artisans, warriors, merchants.  We are simply the next of the paths of the Promethean Way: the apotheosis of the Nocturnean spirit of survival.  We express our world’s harshness on the fields of battle as the Emperor’s paladins, a bulwark against the ravaging of aliens and mutants, heretics and witches, daemons and thinking machines.”

Venus nodded.  “I…have never thought of it that way.”

“Then you must, Princess, before you take your icon back from No’dan and rise to become our rightful Queen,” Fletsun said.  “Do you understand?”

Venus clasped her hands together over her belt buckle and thought.  “I…do not know.  I truly do not know.”

“You will.  I have confidence in your ability to make good decisions,” Fletsun said.  “And no step in the process of learning is as great as admitting a lack thereof.”

“Thank you, Master Fletsun,” Venus said.  “I will reflect on your words.”



===Like A New Woman===


Alex turned around as he heard yelling behind him.  He turned to see someone screaming at the plainclothes detail that had been shadowing them since they had left the restaurant.  A group of surly-looking Nocturnean men was glowering at them from behind the rank of serfs, all of whom had their hands on their needle pistols.

Freya slid an arm around Alex’s waist and guided him back down the street.  “Go.  We shouldn’t be here,” she said urgently.

“What can you hear?” Alex asked.

“They’re pissed because they think you’re the robber that trashed their cousin’s stall this afternoon,” Freya said tightly, speeding them up.  “And at least two of them have guns,” she added under her breath.

“Fuck,” Alex muttered, rounding a corner.  Both teens relaxed as the reassuring bulk of the castle came into sight before them.  A trio of uniformed serfs loped past them, clearly heading for the confrontation behind them.

Freya shook her head, braids snapping behind her.  “Assholes.”

“Forget them,” Alex said.  “Let the Salamanders handle it.”

Remilia paused outside her rooms.  “All right.  I’ll see you tomorrow, Jake,” she said.

“Good night.  Thanks again for dinner,” Jake said, walking into his own accommodations.

The light was off, and he flicked it up, along with the AC.  The frigid air washed over him as he sank into the bed.  “Much better,” he said into the bedspread.

The door rattled as Venus arrived.  Jake rolled over and peered into the sitting room.  His girlfriend was standing in the middle of the room, hands on her temples.  “Hello, Venus.  How did it go?” he asked.

She spun around, eyes flaring.  Jake recoiled and wondered if he had done something wrong.

“Awesome.  Aside from the radspike, it was great,” she cheerfully said.

Jake sat up on the bed.  “Good.  You just looked a bit distracted.”

“Nope.  Just coming down from an emotional high,” she truthfully said.  “How was dinner?”

“Great, though I have the feeling that the place was a tourist trap,” Jake said.  “It was fantastic, but I nearly choked when I saw the prices.”

“Thank goodness Remilia Dorn has more credits than there are stars in the sky, then.” Venus snarked.  She walked into the bedroom and started stripping her armor off.  “Where were you when the radspike hit?”

“We were just waiting to leave in the restaurant,” Jake said.  “You?”

“Middle of a conversation at the party.”  She powered off her weapons and hung the belt on the rack.  “It felt extremely weird.”

“Really?  I didn’t feel a thing.”  Jake shucked his own shirt and shoes.  “It was over so fast.”

“I’m still feeling it,” Venus admitted.  She carefully extracted herself from the armored chest piece of the uniform and hung it on the rack as well.  She rustled her undershirt to get the creases out.  “Phew.  That’s heavier than it looks.”

“You’re still feeling the effects of the radiation?” Jake asked.  “You should see a medic,” he said.

“No, no, it’s all right,” she hastened to explain.  “Here,” she said, sticking her hand out to him.  He curiously took it.  His eyes widened.

“Whoa.  You’re red-hot.”

“Yeah.  There was a Salamander at the party, he explained that this always happens to us when we’re exposed to the radiation of our sun,” she said.  “It’s supposed to happen.  That’s why I was feeling so strange this whole time.”

“Oh.  So…it’s not bad?” he asked.

“Not at all.”  She smiled contentedly, bringing his hand up to her lips and resting it there.  “I promise.”

He relaxed.  “Good.  Want to watch a holo before we turn in?”

“Sure.  Something stupid,” she said, resuming her de-armoring.

Alex finished his bathroom routine and peeked into the bedroom, hoping that Freya would be up for their game.  To his considerable dismay, she was sitting up under the covers reading.  Consoling himself with the knowledge that she at least slept in the buff, he made his way over to the bed and waved the lights down.  “I’m going to try that gym Jake mentioned tomorrow.  You in?” he asked.

“Sure,” she muttered distractedly.  “You going to work out in this gravity?”

“I’ll be careful.”  He lay down next to her and squeezed her knee.  “What you reading?”

“Astropathic message from Dad,” she said.

“Cool.  What’s he saying?” Alex asked.

“The usual.  ‘Hope you had a good flight, don’t drink the water, write when you arrive, don’t let Alex knock you up,’ etc.”

“He did not tell you not to let me get you pregnant,” Alex accused, grabbing the edge of the slate and tilting it towards himself.  “…Okay, he did.  What the fuck?  I thought we were starting to get along!  And you're not baseline!  I CAN'T get you pregnant!”

“I think he likes you, he just doesn’t like the idea of us fucking.  And I don’t blame him,” she said, turning the slate off.  “And after the whole incident with the window and the nylon rope and the servo-skull, I don’t blame him for being suspicious.”

Alex scoffed.  “That was awesome, and you know it.”

“You don’t gotta tell me,” she said smugly.  “I planned it.”  She sank down under the covers and flicked the lights off, and chilled the room with a gesture.  “Much better,” she said.  She snuggled up to Alex under the wafer-thin sheets and slid one arm across his toned chest.  He grabbed her hand and held her tight.  “So…Nocturne.  Thoughts?” she asked quietly.

“Scary place.  I want to see more, though,” he said under his breath.  She heard him fine.  “The heat is going to be a real problem, though.  Thermoreflective gear for me and Jake.  What about you, iceworlder?  You and Remilia must both have been boiling today.”

“We’re built for it.  We’ll be alright.”  Freya said.  She looked up at him from his shoulder.  “Do you want to send a message to your father?”

“I should,” Alex said heavily.  “He might drop by uninvited if I don’t.”

“He’s a Rogue Trader, not a travel agent,” Freya giggled.

“Can you tell?  I can’t, sometimes,” Alex sighed.  “Lord Carlin does not suffer poor accommodations for his offspring, no ma’am.”


As soon as Jake and Venus both were dressed for sleep and cleaned up, they curled up around Venus’ dataslate and absorbed an incredibly dumb holo about deep-space vampires, one of Venus’ pastimes.  Jake had asked her once about why she loved such horrible movies.  Her response: ‘you have to let art flow over you.’

Jake shifted a bit as the warmth from Venus’ skin started to overwhelm him.  She noticed and stuck a bunched-up shirt between them, insulating him from her unnatural heat.  “Sorry, Jake.”

“Not a problem.”  He resumed the movie.  “How can you like these?  They’re so dumb.”

“Jake, a good cheese villain is one you CAN’T take seriously.”  She nodded wisely.  “You have much to learn, your Highness.”

“What are you calling me that for?” Jake asked.  “You and Remilia both.”

“Oh ho, she figured it out, huh?” Venus asked slyly.  Jake slowly turned to face her, pausing the holo.

“What, precisely, are you two talking about?”

“What did Remilia tell you?” Venus asked.

“She said I’m going to be a busy Prince of Nocturne.  Present tense.”

Venus nodded.  “Yep.”

“Baby, we’re not married.”

“But it’s viable, now.  Remember that little contract you signed with Dad?”

Jake very slowly sat up.  “Maybe you should explain that.”

Venus sat up too, crossing her legs.  “Well, Nocturne basically doesn’t have a marriage law like Terra does.  When you agreed to live with me at Kouthry, you were agreeing to be a roommate, essentially.  Nothing more.  Except here on Nocturne, people agree to what looks to Terrans like marriage with basically the same sort of deal.”

Jake stared at her.  “So…people think we’re married?”

“Yeah.  Well, bonded.  Same principle.”  Venus sat back on her hands.  “Look, I didn’t tell you because it’s not your problem to clean up people’s misconceptions.  We’re already going to be living together on Terra for years, and a lot can happen in that time.  I don’t want you to get harassed by tabloids and shit that whole time, asking you if you’re some kind of Royalty.  And realistically, you would be, if we had agreed to that sort of arrangement on Nocturne.  Really.  That’s the whole of it.”

Jake nodded.  “Well…all right.  I think I understand.  Does this mean that things have changed for me?”

“Not if you don’t want them to.”  She looked straight at him.  He met her eyes with an effort.  “Jake, this is a vacation.  I’m not going to ask you to take the reins.  We’re here to have fun.  Tomorrow, I have stuff to do the whole morning.  You and the others go be tourists.  Have a blast.  Explore the city where I was born.  I’ll come find you at lunch and we can talk more if you have questions you don’t think of here.”  She rocked forward onto her knees and grabbed his hand, raising it to her lap and resting it there.  “All right?”

He nodded, staring at her hand in his lap.  “…Do people really get married at sixteen on Nocturne?”

“Bonded.  And yeah.  Before Dad, life expectancies around here sucked.  If you weren’t popping out kids by sixteen, you weren’t going to be.”

“Ew.”

“Yeah.  A different era.”

Jake left his hand where it was, deciding he liked it.  “Well…that raises another question.”

“What?”

“Are we…you know, compatible?”

“I think so,” she purred.

“I mean genetically.”

“Uh.”  She blinked.  “Good...question.  I have to think so.  I know that a few of my uncles are…I have no idea if Dad is.  I suspect so.  I’ll ask Grandpa when we get back.  Why?  Thinking of having kids out of wedlock?” she asked coyly.

Jake shuddered.  “HELL no.  But we may have to find out some day.”

“That’s sweet of you,” she said, touched by his implication.

“Then we wait, and deal with it when it happens,” Jake said with finality.

“Yeah, but I honestly think it’ll be all right.  My internal temperature would be more of a problem, really,” Venus said slowly.  “I’m pretty toasty inside.”

Jake grinned.  “So I have discovered.”  He leaned forward, running his hand over her muscular stomach.  “Your thermostat is broken.”  He frowned.  “Now moreso than usual.  Are you sure you’re all right?  You’re boiling.”

“Jake, I haven’t felt this good since before Morticia,” Venus said with quiet emphasis.  Jake looked over at her.  Her eyes were shut tight, she was grinning broadly.  “The Marine at the party said that this is supposed to happen, there’s no drawback that they know of.”  She opened her eyes and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers with his.  He felt his pulse quicken as her radiant grin turned to him.  “I swear my senses are sharper.  I can see clearer…my hearing is better.”

“Cool.  Your world is actually good for you.”

“As bizarre as it sounds, your Highness,” she snarked.

“That’s going to take some getting used to…” Jake said, letting the title ring in his head.

Venus leaned over him again.  “It’s funny,” she said.  “Dad never told me this would happen, but it feels amazing.  I wish I could show you what it’s like.”

He tugged the hem of her sleeveless vest up and slid an enticing hand over her stomach.  She nodded, as if to accept a superior argument.  “I suppose that’s one way,” she said with mock reluctance.  Tugging it the rest of the way off, she sank into his embrace.  “Welcome to my world, Jake,” she whispered softly.

He caught her lips in a passionate kiss.  “I feel pretty welcome so far,” he murmured as she slid his shirt off to join hers.  He grinned fiercely as she ran her hands up his sides.  “Home sweet home.”


===Homesickness===


Remilia Dorn sat cross-legged on the roof of the castle, slate in hand.  The night was a good thirty degrees colder than the day here.  She was actually chilly.

“I don’t want to come off like a neophyte Warp-traveler, you two, but this planet is crazy,” she said.  The little recording icon on her slate took down her words and transcribed them.  “I’m on the roof now, and the stars are so bright it’s uncanny.  Is this what old Earth looked like?  Dad, is this what Inwit looked like?”  She stood up, staring at the high walls of the city.  “Venus tells me that the walls here see use all the time.  The city would be under siege from monsters if it weren't here.  And the ash drifts have to be burned off with a multi-melta, they get so big.”  She craned her head down and stared at the city below.  “The people…the people are strong, but insular.  They dislike foreigners, except when we’re spending money.  But then, who doesn’t?”

She hopped down from the roof to the balcony from which she had climbed, ten feet below.  “The place is built like a fortress, even the houses are reinforced all to hell.  You’d approve, Dad.”  She looked at where a thick column of smoke was rising from a structure built into the distant volcano.  “Venus says we can’t go see the Forges of the Mountain.  I’m disappointed, but I understand.  She’s going to spend some of tomorrow there, though.”  She lowered her voice a bit, conspiratorial.  “I think she’s making a birthday present for Jake.”

The door behind her opened as someone came to see what the impact was.  Remilia turned to look at him, still talking, and the serf who had guided her up there nodded when he saw that she was all right.  “The Salamanders are gracious hosts.  They treat their serfs…well, not like true equals, but as kin.  The people here, too, they treat them nearly as well.  There are Salamanders on the streets below.  That sense of solidarity is incredible.  I wonder if the Wolves will do it too?”

She continued as she set the slate down on the ledge.  “The speech Venus gave was amazing.  Truly amazing.  She improvises public speaking better than I can do with a script.”  Remilia tapped her finger on the ledge.  “You should find a copy of the speech if you can.  It’s worth a watch.  Maybe ask Uncle Vulkan, I’m sure he’s got a copy.”  She changed gears, moving on to schedule discussion.  “Well…tomorrow we’ll be wandering the city a bit while Venus is out.  I’m looking forward to exploring the rest of the Castle, too.  Apparently the whole city was built vertically; every few hundred years or so they’d tear part of the castle down and make it taller so local structures could expand.  The walls of the city look like geologic strata in places, it’s beautiful.”

She looked back to the sky.  “Have you two ever been here?  You didn’t say if you had.  The sky is terrible here.  It’s as red as a gaping wound, and the night is as black as the depths of space…but it’s so beautiful.  The aurorae from the radspike earlier today are magnificent.”  She reached her hand out to the blue ribbons of light, dancing above the horizon.  “Did Earth have these before the beacons on the tops of the hives drowned them out, and a million ships in orbit obscured them?” she whispered.

In the distance, a horrific roar echoed over the walls.  Remilia started.  “I…I think I just heard drakesong.”  She listened, very carefully.  The noise repeated, even louder.  “It’s terrifying...is a Salamander out there earning his admittance to the Fire Drakes?”  The noise sounded again, louder yet…then cut off halfway.  “That answers that.”  She shivered.  “Breathtaking.  I don’t know if you can hear that, but a drake totally got its ass kicked a second ago.”

Her slate beeped.  “Looks like I’m approaching the Astropathic limit.  I’ll write again soon.  Bye.”  She flipped the recorder off and transcribed the message with a button, then sent it off to the Astropathic station in orbit with another press.  As she lifted the slate to leave, however, it beeped again.  She blinked.  “Oh, it sent already?  That was fast.”  She looked up at the invisible station overhead and smiled.  “Maybe I’ll hear back soon.”

Venus’ eyes opened.  She glanced at the clock-

0455.  A quarter hour early …but she didn’t feel tired at all.  Venus smiled to herself.  “Radiation…gotta love it, apparently.”  She glanced down at Jake, still fast asleep in her arms.  “I doubt you’ll see me before lunch…”  She leaned over and gently kissed his forehead.  He didn’t stir.  “Happy birthday,” she whispered.

Ten minutes later, she was dressed, cleaned, and in the gym, gingerly testing her balance in the higher gravity.  Ten minutes after that, she was working away on the leg weights when her cousins wandered in and walked on over.

“Morning,” Venus said.

“Hey.”  Remilia selected a leg lift and started to set the weights before pausing.  “Right…1.3Gs…”  She stopped to remove some weights before starting the lift.  “How are you feeling?”

“Awesome,” Venus said, flicking a sweaty hair out of her eyes.  “You?”

“Apprehensive,” Remilia said.  “The weather holo scared me.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.  Boiling hot and bone-dry,” Freya said.  “Thermos for me.”  She glanced over Venus’ stack of weights.  “Good for you.  Keeping track of your gains?”

“No, because they’ll vanish as soon as we leave,” Venus said.  “Trust me.”

“Ah.”  Freya selected a pair of free weights and began lifting.  “Your core catch the breeze?” she nonchalantly inquired.

Venus’ weight stack slammed back into the bottom of the machine.  “How the hell did you know about that when I didn’t?” Venus demanded, eyes wide and bright.

“I didn’t.  You confirmed it,” Freya replied honestly.  Remilia glanced from one to the other.  “I overheard a Salamander ask about something like that on Prometheus.  I swear that’s the extent of it.”

“What?” Remilia asked.

“Salamander geneseed was tainted by radiation exposure,” Venus murmured.  “Apparently when Salamanders are exposed to specific kinds of solar radiation, we become stronger.”

“Cool.”  Remilia removed a small weight from her stack.

“That’s it?  Cool?  It freaked me the hell out,” Venus said.  “I could FEEL my eyes getting sharper.”

“Really?  That’s actually…pretty intense.  Did it hurt?” Remilia asked.

“No, it feels amazing.  But it makes me nervous, too.  What will it feel like when I withdraw?” Venus wondered.

“Probably not bad, if your father’s done it a thousand times,” Freya pointed out.

Venus nodded.  “True.  Thanks.  This doesn’t weird you guys?  Is there a parallel for the Wolves and Fists?”

“Nope.  But hey, if it allows you to approach my infinite athletic ability, rock on,” Freya casually said.

“Die in a fire,” Venus deadpanned.

“That seems likely, actually, given the day’s itinerary,” Remilia worried.