He had kept her waiting, leaving Sigil frustrated and sequestered in an unfamiliar place. Even so, Sovereign had not expected to find her as she was.

“What is she doing?” His frown sat tight under a scowl.

“Drinking,” Arden answered, looking through the translucent golden partitions that surrounded the great table in the Imperial Consort’s quarters.

Sovereign was not amused. “And Karhl has allowed this?”

“Not at first.” The golden one shrugged, eyeing the female sitting alone at a table cut from a single slab of onyx, her fingertips tracing over etchings filled with bronze. “But she started to cry, and he gave her what she wanted.”

Karhl stood like an over-muscled fixture where the female sat pouring herself another serving of rare Tessan Fire Spirits.

Sigil had tried to wipe off the white paint crusting her forehead, tried to free herself from the bindings in her hair, and had clearly shredded a good deal of her clothes.

As if armed with the secrets of the universe, Arden smirked, peeking towards Sovereign from the corner of his eye. “I don’t think she can move her leg.”

“Is that why she cried?” The emperor spoke lowly, his strategy for her arrival ruined beyond repair.

“No. She wants to go back to Xevdrik Anni—to her Seasons and her Jerla. Karhl told her that would be impossible, explaining how the tale of what took place on the landing would have spread throughout the city. Now that Converts know the Imperial Consort has awoken, and until her position is established, she is unsafe away from the Brotherhood’s seat of power.”

Sovereign’s crossed arms flexed, eyes raging to find Sigil so unhappy. “He was correct.”

Putting a hand on his Brother’s shoulder, Arden explained. “She blames you, of course.” The quicksilver smirk was back, the golden one moving the second Sigil reached for an unopened flask. “Upset or no, she does not need that second bottle of spirits. So, I am going to go take that away from her and hope Karhl keeps her from drinking my blood instead.”

Projecting a voice light and carefree, Arden moved into her line of sight. “Jerla is in transit, Sister. He will be here soon, where you will see that he is safe.”

Sigil snarled. “He will think he is being taken to the sands.”

The fresh bottle was swiped out of her reach, Arden tutting. “No one will let him think such a thing. And when he arrives, your boy will know he can trust you.”

“You give me that bottle, Arden, or I will rip off your arm and take it from your bleeding corpse!”

Moving back so fast her eyes could hardly follow, the Herald chuckled. “Are you going to hop one-legged after me?”

No. She would use her newfound ability to exercise what Sovereign deemed useful psionics. It was not easy, her sad lack for subtlety yanking more objects near her than just one lean Herald. But in the end, she had the bottle, Karhl had been soundly pegged in the head, and Arden was no longer grinning.

Intervening in the mayhem, Sovereign rounded the partition. “Arden, leave.”

Bowing, the Herald bypassed the mess Sigil’s unpracticed mental tug had piled on the floor and exited the chamber.

“Precious Sigil, you have my apologies. This was not how I envisioned introducing you to the palace, the family quarters...” Sovereign’s eyes went to the bottle at her mouth, “or my cellar.”

Swallowing loudly, Sigil rubbed her lips together before phrasing her question. “If I had not attacked your soldier, would I have been allowed to return to the Water Palace?”

The issue might as well be dealt with directly. “No.”

Regret, the sense she did not believe him, sat open on her face. “Why?”

“This is your home, Sigil.” He rested his hand on hers. “And it has been waiting for you, just as I have.”

She was beginning to get upset. “You saw what happened. I was not more than three steps off the cruiser!”

“What happened?” Sovereign smiled, projecting pride in what she’d done. “You uncovered a Soshiia rebel agent long before I believe he intended to act. My gratitude is yours.”

After a long drink Sigil demanded an explanation. “What is Soshiia?”

“Had you read the journals Arden wrote for you, you would know, and spare me a lengthy explanation. Fortunately, they are being transferred here, along with your other things.”

Narrowing her eyes, threatening him in every aspect of her demeanor, Sigil hissed, “I don’t want what I came here for anymore... I just want to be left alone!”

Sovereign nodded, going so far as to remove his touch from her hand. “I understand.”

Outright suspicion shown on her face. “You... you do?”

“Drink your fire spirits. Karhl can show you your sleeping chamber when you’re tired. Your desire for solitude will be respected, though I expect Jerla will want to see you when he arrives.”

Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, Sigil took a deep breath. “Jerla is welcome.”

“As you wish, beloved.” Nothing more was offered, Sovereign stood, bowing just as Arden had, and left the room.

***

Sovereign’s implanted communicator relayed there were greater issues than Sigil drinking herself into a stupor. Arden awaited him at the gates to the Family Wing, and required the presence of the emperor at once.

Leaving her was wise. Karhl would tend her, her confidence would return, and the sight of Jerla would add normalcy to an unstable situation. But there was one approaching, one who would go as far as to break down the door if Sovereign did not intervene.

An expression of hate passed over the emperor’s face. He glared as if he could see through the walls, beyond the barred entry of Sigil’s wing, all the way to where Lord Commander Tiburon waited, his faction of the Brotherhood behind him.

Navigating the corridors and antechambers, Sovereign came to the massive double doors and motioned for them to be opened. Once he stepped through they were sealed like a vault, leaving the emperor dwarfed before the great portal.

Lord Commander Tiburon’s eyes threatened violence against the smaller Herald standing in defense of the passage. “If you believe you can command me, Arden, I will gladly remind you that a Herald does not outrank a Lord Commander. I could crush you, as Sigil could crush you. That you were tasked with her keeping is laughable.”

Tiburon had arrived fully armored, armed even, his shaved head cocked so the long scar that ran in a diagonal over his eye caught the light. Finding Sovereign appear only to close the gate, the Lord Commander sneered towards the Emperor next. “Is it as Arden claims? You would deny me the company of our Sigil?”

Sovereign smiled, the curve of his lips anything but welcoming. “Her demeanor is agitated. She requested solitude.”

A nasty grin came to the face of the most aggressive of their kind. “I will fuck her calm.”

Arden interposed, assertive, though lesser in comparison to the Lord Commander Tiburon’s bulk. “Karhl is with her.”

A disgusted throat noise came from Tiburon. “A Brother who can’t bring himself to spread her legs for her own good. Sigil would not have been in harm’s way on the ramparts had she been mounted and subdued properly before arrival. Had she arrived of sound mind, she could have told us of the conspiracy without unveiling the agent. An opportunity to track the origins of the Soshiia infection has been wasted.”

“That would have been ideal, yes. But you forget, Lord Commander Tiburon,” the title was spoken in full to emphasize that the aggressor ranked below the calm-faced Emperor, “that she is not our ally as of yet. What makes you think she would have spoken a word to assist our Empire? What makes you think the Soshiia might not have tried to seduce her with promises of our demise? Now they will fear her. It is better this way.”

“You coddle her too much,” Tiburon ran a finger over his metal filled scar—the mark he wore with great pride—licking his lips as he looked to the door separating him from the female. “It is why she does not respect you, and why you cannot bring her into a fertile cycle. Sigil requires a firmer hand.”

A low growl escaped Sovereign’s chest at the insult.

With a vicious smile breaking across his face, Tiburon laughed under his breath. Turning, he motioned for the Brothers at his back to retreat. “When it’s my turn, she won’t be able to walk for a week. I’ll do what you can’t and inspire our little slut into heat. It might be your seed that gets her fat, but all will know the first daughter was really mine.”

***

Hours spent torturing the Soshiia infiltrator did little to calm the rage within the emperor. As usual, the human died giving little information, reminding Sovereign of Tiburon’s taunt.

In many ways, the Lord Commander had been correct. Sigil might not have outright attacked the human had she not been on the cusp of regression. And leaving her in that state was a risk—an even greater risk now that the Brotherhood must concede a spy had climbed through the upper ranks unnoticed.

It should not have been possible.

Traversing her vacant living areas, Sovereign found shreds of clothes made a trail towards her sleeping chamber—breadcrumbs left to follow. Entering the room, he found her tucked in the great bed he’d commissioned be carved by the finest artisans of the human worlds eighty years prior. Gillatern Forest’s largest tree rose to touch cathedral ceilings, the branching sculpture detailed with birds in flight, bedecked with renditions of the empire’s most beautiful flowers, hung with banners of pure white draped against so much black lacquered wood. Seeming innocent in sleep, Sigil lay naked, white paint matting the roots of her hair, embraced in the arms of Karhl, who stroked her, the Lord Commander clearly enjoying the moment of intimacy between them.

“She will be disturbed to be subjected to what must be done,” Sovereign grunted, face devoid of emotion as he began to strip and approach. Once naked, he crawled between the covers, pressing close to the woman who smelled of grass and honey liqueur.

Thick fingers carding through her long, silvery hair, Karhl regarded the sleeping female. “Her transition was complex. Hours ago I stood defensive of imminent attack. Sigil’s eyes had tracked my every movement. She’d begun to cycle her psionics—the buildup obvious with her lack of training. Had her leg been fully functional, I am certain I would have been forced to restrain her. Jerla’s arrival was well-timed. One look at him, at his skittish body language, and she became a lamb.”

Watching his beloved, longing greatly to reach out and run his thumb over the line formed between her brows, Sovereign sighed. “Lamb is not a title she would appreciate.”

“True…” Head bent, Karhl nuzzled the female’s hair, inhaling deeply.

Sovereign, watching the rise and fall of his Consort’s breaths, said, “Tiburon demands access to her. For her own good she must be fully stable.”

Karhl’s counterpart held great power in the Empire and had a very strong right to the woman.

The lightest of touches traced over parted, soft lips, Sovereign calling to her, “My precious Sigil.”

She came awake.

Sigil might have moved, but Karhl lay like a stone wall at her back. The Lord Commander toyed with her hair, the sensation familiar, the warrior projecting contentment which clashed sharply with the darker hunger behind the emperor’s gently smiling mask.

Every emotion inside the male was intent on devouring her, his constrained objective displayed by the way his cock swelled against her belly. Yet all Sovereign did was ask, “How is your leg?”

Testing the limb for weakness, Sigil found all feeling had returned. “Functional.”

Her small movement, the marginal slide of a warm body, brought just enough sensation across his swollen organ that the emperor’s breath caught. Sovereign braced before he foolishly rutted in search of more disgustingly perfect friction.

Before she might balk, Karhl’s nose skimmed her neck, the giant whispering, “He will see to you and I shall leave.”

“No.” Her negation was abrupt, as was the way her hand shot out to claw Karhl’s hip. Sigil had come to Irdesi Prime specifically to take Sovereign into her body. The emperor was strongest, instinctively her chemical reaction to him would always be greatest, but at that moment she didn’t want to be alone with him.

Sigil might have subjected herself to the deserved penalty of the Empire’s control out of contrition for failing Que. She might have fought every impulse to strike out, feigning capitulation. She might have feared what would happen to Jerla should she fail to navigate this new unscrupulous environment. But Sigil was still, at heart, a formidable warrior—one who hated the thought she would be forced into submission should she fail to maintain self-control.

Turning towards the Lord Commander, she met Karhl’s limpid eyes.

He kneaded her spine, Karhl offering his mouth. Sigil could have denied his kiss; she could have cast him off. She could have done many things... had Que survived.

The familiar touch was soothing, the expertise of the white-haired warrior’s lips a perfect distraction. In the oddest sense, even under the insistent caress of two men, if she let herself forget the why of it, the moment almost belonged only to her and the Lord Commander.

Sovereign encouraged the illusion, maneuvering so Sigil would face his subordinate. Lifting her buttocks high in the air he kneeled, cautious to harmonize with the cadence of another’s touch upon his female. It was only when Sigil hesitated at the feel of his swollen cock at her cleft that Sovereign tangled his hand in her hair, gently urging her head down so Sigil’s lips might part and be filled with the pierced member Karhl held out in offering.

This was an act she enjoyed.

To feel the drag of metal studs over her tongue, to taste the organ she had admired and denied herself... brought Sigil zeal for more. Her tongue swirling around so large a beast, Sovereign parted slippery folds, groaning at the pretty hole that wept in need. One bracing surge impaled her on the emperor’s cock, Sigil rocking forward to swallow the remainder of Karhl’s girth down her throat.

It was... bliss.

Where her skin felt like fire, four hands soothed. Where her body had been empty, she was perfectly full.

In tandem, well-timed penetration kept nerves eager to be satisfied attended, vigorous rocking edging the female into ecstasy.

Had it been Sovereign alone trying to touch her so tenderly, she would have clawed and fought for roughness. Yet working as one, the Brothers disarmed and drew her into lovemaking.

When she seemed on the cusp of aggression, Sovereign lay a pinch on her nape. It was just enough to make her moan, not enough to make her weak. Sigil’s attention remained consumed in the feel of her throat around Karhl’s pulsing organ, the vibration of her grunts and hungry cries making the Lord Commander’s balls draw up tight.

Karhl had his hands in her hair, holding it back so he could see his cock disappear into her warm, wet mouth. The pump of his hips, she chased after his withdrawing dick, eager to swallow him down again, her enthusiasm for him enough to send the white-haired warrior beyond self-control.

Reaching down to knead his sack, hearing the woman’s greedy sucking noises, something centuries in the making broke from the base of Karhl’s spine until his body contorted. He gushed like a geyser, the flat of Sigil’s tongue dancing amidst the studs. Hollowed velvet cheeks stroking, she lapped the very life from the roaring Lord Commander.

Watching her suck him clean, Karhl reeled at the beauty of his cock popping free of Sigil’s puckered lips, glorified at the hooded glacial eyes of his lover. With the shine of saliva and spilled sperm on her mouth, Sigil rocked with no anchor, Sovereign pounding her hard, employing the aggression both warriors knew she preferred.

Eager to please her as she had pleased him, Karhl lifted her back onto the emperor’s waiting arms. Sovereign held her upright, cupping her breasts as if offering their beauty to the Lord Commander. In a swoop, Karhl ducked his head, lapping her nipples, pulling taut, pink flesh forward with his teeth until she squealed and gripped at the ropes of his hair.

Hungry to hear more of that beautiful noise, his mouth went lower, Karhl holding her hips steady so Sovereign might piston his cock into the very place Karhl longed to devour. Watching her sweet pussy, so pink and full, was glorious, catching the metal rod that dragged over her pert, needy clit, sublime.

Beyond Sigil’s excited moans, even Sovereign panted at the feel of Kharl’s frenzied tongue when it brushed his shaft in an effort to get more of her taste.

Gripping her breasts, rolling his body so the head of his cock might plunder deep, Sovereign closed his teeth over her nape the second Sigil’s pleasure peaked. Subjected to a rough bite, Sigil inadvertently choked her cunt down on Sovereign’s pulsing shaft, the man drawing from her lips a scream so pure it would have stiffened the cock of every Brother near enough to hear it.

Even with her thrashing, Kharl did not ease the frantic licking of her pussy. He gave Sigil no respite, no quarter, not even pausing when his Brother began to spurt so greatly her taste grew salty with come.

Sigil had to beg him to stop before Karhl locked his lips to hers, jamming his tongue in her mouth so she might taste the beauty of the three of them at once.

It took her some time to realize Sovereign cradled her against his chest, that they were speaking to her, praising such a giving performance.

“Beloved,” nipping her nape between words, Sovereign enticed, “every day will be better. You will never be lonely. You will never be frightened. This faith you have shown me, I will pay it back tenfold.”

It was Karhl who saw her expression constrict, her lips losing their softness when too much thinking wrecked her calm. He took her chin in a rough pinch, assuring she listened to every word. “You are not on Condor. Handlers cannot tell you how to feel. Neither can Sovereign. Neither can I. And neither can corroding programming. From this day forward, you must think for yourself.”

“You are free, beloved.” Sovereign rolled his hips to remind her, to press his liquid offering deeper. “That is what I offer you.”

And then rose to leave her spent and tangled in the sheets to consider. Sovereign eased from her womb, brushing lips over her knotted brow as he excused himself to prepare for court. Karhl offered his own farewell, kissing her moody pout away before departing to attend to his own duties.

With the emperor and Lord Commander gone, Arden waited at the door, an audience she’d failed to notice in the pleasure of the pairing. Smiling, the Herald took in her disheveled nudity, drew her from the bed, and pulled her deeper into the mountain. Sun disappeared, fire lit catacombs offering a sense of depth until the beauty of a natural spring bubbled up under lamplight.

While Sigil scanned the vast cave, Arden shoved her into the steaming water, laughing even as he stripped his tunic to join her.

Splashing, chasing the sputtering woman through the pool, Arden incited games Sigil didn’t quite understand, coaxing out a predator’s love for hunt and evasion.

She would give chase; he would disappear, splashing her from behind.

In no time at all, the brilliant Herald coaxed out the first laugh any survivor of Cataclysm had ever heard their female sing.

***

“What are the Soshiia?”

Arden glanced up from where he’d placed his journals in an alcove. The golden one tilted up the corner of his lips, and seemed to think on his answer. “Every society has their anarchist.”

That wasn’t exactly the answer Sigil had been looking for. Scowling, she looked at his books. “Sovereign told me your journals told the story.”

Returning to his work, Arden admitted, “I suppose they do.”

Staring at the long plait of golden hair that hung down the entire length of his spine, Sigil grunted, “And if I want to know, I have to read? You won’t just tell me.”

“It’s a complicated explanation requiring a detailed understanding of our history. Anything I might tell you in casual conversation would lack the necessary depth of the truth.”

Leaning back on the red damask couch, Sigil understood. “So it’s something terrible... I will blame the empire for it unless I understand the why of it. And to understand the why of it I have to commit to absorbing a lot more than just the story of a rebel group.”

“Maybe.”

He was teasing her. She could sense the playfulness, and could not help but smirk. “I thought you were supposed to be on my side.”

Utterly serious, Arden turned so she might see his fervent expression. “I am on your side, Sigil. I will always be on your side.”

Pointing to the volumes, Sigil sighed. “Give me one.”

Pleased, Arden pulled a red bound book from the shelf and held it out. “You have enough time before Dryden and Corths arrive, to read at least the initial instalment.”

She’d only shared evening meals with the High Adherents at the Water Palace, never had they come to her rooms midday. Unhappy with the thought, she ground her teeth and opened the cover.

“It would break their hearts to see you scowl so at the prospect of their company. They love you greatly, Sister, and are only coming to assure your attendants behave in accordance with the honor of their position.”

Now she was really annoyed. “What?”

“Each Convert woman was hand selected—reared—to please you.”

“Slavery is illegal in the Empire.”

Arden laughed as if she’d said something cute. “Believe me, the females are willing, eager even. For humans with no military skill, who lack influential bloodlines, there is little opportunity to advance. Considering your needs, it is an ideal arrangement on both sides.” He had a further point to make. “No son, no daughter, or anyone tied to a human house of standing could possibly be in your intimacy without upsetting the balance of power. So, several of your Brothers have taken it upon themselves to cultivate your retainers from the lowest tribes, sending them as gifts.”

It seemed the Brothers played at politics with each other just as the humans did... all seeking favor. “Why would I need attendants?”

“To dress you, bathe you, amuse you, and even die for you should the situation require. If you want silence, they will be mute. If you desire court gossip, they will disclose anything they uncover.”

She shook her head. “They would be loyal to the Brother who’d raised them, directing their conversation to uplift the one who gave them the position.”

There was no advantage on lying on that point. “Fortunately, you are an empath and can use such an extraordinary sense to protect yourself from the unworthy.”

He had earned Sigil’s attention, the female sitting up on her elbows. “Are you warning me against your Brothers?”

“As I said, I am on your side.”

Narrowing her eyes, Sigil cocked her head and looked hard at the man putting away trinkets like a servant. “Just how fragile is your compact with one another?”

Smiling, beautiful, Arden reached forward and ran a finger over her jaw. “Everything you need to know is in my journals.”

It was obvious how badly Arden wanted her to read his account of things, how manipulative the Herald was behaving. That did not stop her from lowering her eyes to the page and starting at the beginning.