"Will do, boss." Dee terminated the call from his end.

"Fuck," Gavril muttered. "If it isn't one thing, it's another."

* * *

"Tory, why are you here? Reah probably needs reassurance from you right now." Garde gave his son a concerned look.

"She's with Aurelius," Tory grumbled. "She didn't even tell me he'd come back—we were afraid she'd disappeared on us until Auri sent mindspeech."

"Well, she doesn't have mindspeech at the moment—have you thought about that?"

"Ry pointed it out to Gav, but he didn't say anything. He doesn't want to remove the chip yet because he's afraid she'll run. We might not find her if she does."

"I don’t like this even a little," Garde said, holding his anger in check. "Reah doesn't have any way to call for help or to defend herself in that way."

"But Dad, we're here—we can do that for her."

"You're here. Reah isn't," Garde pointed out the obvious. "Jayd wouldn't leave Glinda's side unless she was well-guarded by High Demons. That's a High Demon female child, son. What are you doing to keep her safe?"

"Ah, I was hoping to find you here," Norian folded in. "I just wanted to let you know that Reah will be healing the core on Tulgalan in two weeks."

"No!" Tory and Garde said at the same time. "Tell Reah this is foolish. We can't risk the child," Gardevik was blowing smoke.

"It isn't Reah's decision to make," Norian snapped. "She's still ASD property. I told her she had to. She likes it less than you, I think."

"You're forcing her?" Garde lunged at Norian. Norian defended himself by folding away.

* * *

"At least he had the balls to come tell you himself," Lissa attempted to calm Garde and Tory down. They'd folded straight to her study after Norian had gotten away from them. "Have you talked to Reah?"

"We haven't," Tory grumbled. "We've been too pissed off."

"Where is Gavril? Has he been told yet?"

"Don't have the answer to that either. He's up to his chin in Campiaan Alliance shit," Tory was blowing smoke again.

"I don't know what to think about all this," Lissa said. "My son, fifty years older than he was when he left three months ago. Kifirin hasn't shown up again, the coward."

* * *

"Father, it couldn't be helped," Lendill was whining to Kaldill Schaff and he knew it. His father had said to bring Reah the moment she returned and he would perform the marriage ceremony. Now, Reah would slam the door in Lendill's face if he proposed such an idea. Why couldn't Norian have let her go so this could be done? His father would never have asked if it weren't important.

"Child, this makes everything worse, if not impossible, now. You will see." Kaldill slapped the comp-vid, terminating the communication.

"Fuck," Lendill muttered angrily before going back to his research—he was trying to determine where Nidris and his family might be upon Tulgalan.

* * *

"Call me Em-pah, baby girl." Lenden—well, Denevik—had come with Glinda and Jayd. Glinda was uncomfortable—I could tell. At least she'd set aside her aversion to seeing me and come with her husband. I was glad, too, that I'd put a seafood stew together for Aurelius and me. We shared our meal of stew and freshly-baked bread with our visitors. Denevik hugged me when they'd arrived and I'd called him Lenden.

"Did you take that name to honor our father?" Glinda paused, her soupspoon halfway to her lips. Glinda is more than beautiful and Jayd always looks at her as if the sun rises in her eyes.

"I did. Baby, your great-grandfather's name was Lendevik Lith," my grandfather smiled at me. "And there wasn't anyone who treated his children better. All of us were bathed by our father at night when we were small. And he played with us and smiled when he put us to bed. Your great-grandmother, Belarok, dealt with us during the day while father managed Kifirin. I think he looked forward to his time with us every day."

I wanted to ask my grandfather why his oldest brother felt compelled to kill his father, then, if his father had been so kind to all of them. Denevik took the thought from my mind. "The Ra'Ak, child. They promised something and twisted Tarevik's mind. Made him believe he was entitled to something not given to him. I'm sure father never saw the attack coming, he loved his children so much."

"Are you saying that children shouldn't be loved?" I rubbed my belly at the thought. I was determined that my daughter would have love—as much as I could give to her.

"No, granddaughter. I know why you say this," he added. "There is a middle ground. We will give her love and firm guidance without harming her."

"We will make sure she thrives," Aurelius added. Lissa always said he was a better parent to Gavin than his biological parents had been. It made me wonder if Gavin had been mistreated when he was small. That was something I'm sure he would never say and now that I had pushed his child away, well, I wouldn't get that answer unless Aurelius knew it.

"This is wonderful," Glinda liked her stew and bread.

"It was a simple meal I prepared for the kitchen staff when I was at Desh's," I said. "Edan would go home the moment the doors were locked, leaving the rest of us to clean up and prepare for the next day's menu. We didn't usually get to eat during the course of the evening meal—we were always too busy. I'd throw this together and we'd eat. Of course, my brothers Wald and Ilvan still didn't speak to me so the rest of the staff followed suit. It didn't keep them from emptying the stew pot and finishing off the bread."

"What made you prepare this instead of something else?" Jayd asked.

"I took all the seafood that would go bad in the next day or two and used that. It kept us from having to throw it out. I tried not to be wasteful and the staff's contracts said that they were entitled to a meal if they worked through the dinner hour."

"How old were you when you started making this?" My grandfather rubbed my shoulders. What was I to do with this affection from a family member? I would have to get used to it, I think.

"Twelve," I said. "I found a recipe on Edan's comp-vid and added to it to use up the shrimp that was about to turn. It was good the first time—better each time after that until I got it just the way I wanted it. Eventually, Edan found out about it so we served it in the restaurant two days per moon-turn. Guests showed up on those days, just to get the fish stew. And Edan beat me when he discovered I'd used his comp-vid," I added.

"He'll get out of prison in only a few weeks," Aurelius grumbled.

"I wish there was some way to make it so he'd never father another child," I grumbled. "I think he would be a terrible father."

"Already has been," Aurelius sighed. "But Marzi still has another seven years on her sentence since she masterminded the murder. The physician disappeared after testifying," Aurelius tore off another piece of bread to dip in his stew. "Nobody knows where he is."

"As long as he doesn't have a license, he shouldn't be allowed to practice medicine in the Alliance," Jayd said.

"Should I find him," Denevik opened and closed his right fist.

"Denny, don't. He isn't worth it," Glinda patted her brother's arm. "Reah, are you going to be able to do what Director Keef wants—repairing Tulgalan's core?" She changed the subject, steering us toward safer ground.

I heaved a sigh at my aunt's question. "I hope so," I told her. "It drains me physically and even when it's under ideal conditions, I'm unconscious for clicks afterward. And then I'm exhausted for days. It was better this time, since Karzac helped me."

"Reah, someone will be there with you," Aurelius stroked my hair. I'd left it loose—he liked it that way. I didn't point out that someone had been with me all three times I'd repaired cores and still I'd experienced unconsciousness followed by exhaustion.

"Why didn't somebody tell me there was food?" Tory appeared between Jayd and Glinda, giving Glinda a kiss on the cheek.

"Tory, I didn't invite you," I muttered.

"Baby, you can't mean that," he said, picking up a bowl and helping himself to the stew. "Pass the bread, please." Jayd scooted the plate of bread in Tory's direction as Tory took an empty seat on Jayd's other side. Unwilling to get into an argument with him while the others were here, I stared at my half-eaten bowl of fish chowder.

"Reah, finish your lunch, love," Aurelius coaxed.

"Not hungry," I said.

"Karzac won't be happy if you don't eat. I won't be happy if you don't eat. Come on, finish that for Em-pah." Denevik was tapping the edge of my bowl.

"Reah, this is Torevik's child," Jayd said softly. "Allow him to be a father."

Jayd's words made me snort. I hadn't seen much in the father department yet—all I'd seen was him going off with his brothers and taking Teeg's part in all this.

"Why weren't we invited?" Ry showed up with Teeg. Well, that was it for me. My appetite was gone and now I felt nauseous. Slipping off my stool, I headed toward the small bathroom right off Aurelius' kitchen.

* * *

"Shit, she's losing her lunch," Tory was up in a blink and walking toward the bathroom with Gavril, Aurelius and Denevik right behind him. They found Reah crouched in the floor, dry heaving. She'd already lost everything she'd eaten earlier. "Get a wet cloth," Gavril ordered. Someone complied and Tory was kneeling in the floor next to Reah, pulling her against him and washing her face with the cool cloth.

* * *

"Tory, leave me alone," I sputtered weakly when he began washing my face with the wet cloth. "Go away. Go build the Campiaan Alliance with your brother."