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Right. So, I guess I am on leave for how long?

Six months. When she s cleared after post-partum, we will expect you to return.

Okay.

Oh, and you have to register as an operative of the BDC.

Why?

Zera sighed. So we can protect you and have a legal right to defend you if an active tries to make a move on you.

I am not saying Raek, but there will be a lot of socializing as he resumes his position, and that will put you in the path of a lot of very scary people.

As a BDC contractor, you call us, and they get slapped. .. or more.

Hmm. How many human-class folks do you have in that descriptor?

You would be the first. So, we have your history; we are getting your physical and genome. Do you know your country of origin?

Maybe Urrada, maybe the capitol, or maybe Sethir. I don t actually know.

Do you know if your parents were actives?

Nope. I was with a group of children who escaped from Uradda fifteen years ago.

Zera blinked. But you don t know if you are Uradden?

I have no clue. I was kept in a lab, but I don t have any activation. It made it easier to grab the others and make a run for it.

How old are you?

Leska shrugged. Best guess is thirty-one.

Zera s fingers flew over her keyboard, and she stared. You brought through twelve Uraddan children. All actives. There was a court hearing to see if you were allowed to stay, given your status. It was eighteen years ago. You were declared to be twelve at the time.

If you say so. It was a long time ago.

Huh. This is interesting. I am going to look into it, but head down to the bio-lab. Dr. Keery is waiting to work you over on the genetic level.

All right. Do you need to know anything else?

No. This is... interesting.

Leska nodded and got up. Keep me posted. I am curious as to what you find.

Zera asked. You honestly don t know?

There are a few lab-grown Uraddans in town, and a few are registered with the BDC. Ask them how much they remember about their early days.

She left Zera with that and headed back to the lift, nodding to the receptionist who was back at the desk. Have a nice day.

She got into the lift and swiped her card before pressing the bio-lab floor. Leska knew a lot more about her kind of person in the BDC, but she had no idea how the knowledge was there. She had been tested for activation a lot, and nothing ever came of it. She was delightfully neutral.

She needed to get something nice for Cadence and the baby. Today was going to be fun.

Leska was lying back and looking at the ceiling as the internal exam was being carried out. The doctor murmured, This is going to sound weird, but your body is very familiar. It reminds me of someone.

That does sound weird, Doc.

Dr. Kerry finished the exam and lifted his head, his third eye glowing and providing illumination. I am serious. Aside from you appearing human, there is an energy signature that I have seen before.

I shouldn t have one.

I know, but it is there. Now, some blood work and then the intake interview that outlines your protocols.

Great. Can t wait. She scooted back, closed her thighs, and sat across the exam bed.

Arcady is good with a blood draw, so she will be in and do your interview. All of your vitals look good.

Arcady? Okay. She shrugged.

You can get dressed; she will be in in a few minutes.

Thanks for warming your hands.

Dr. Kerry chuckled. I will be in touch if the blood work shows anything.

She nodded and dressed the moment he was out of the room. She knew the labs were all recorded, but this mattered to her. She wasn t an escort, and she didn t show off.

She waited in the room, and then a white-haired, violet-eyed woman came in with a smile. Leska, please come with me.

Leska got to her feet, and they walked down the hall to a comfortable boardroom. She sat where directed, and Arcady sat across from her.

Hello, this is for the records.

First, can we get the blood draw?

That will be done last. First, we need items for the biography in case anything happens to you.

Oh. Wow. A company funeral. Right.

Arcady paused. No. In case you form a union with an active. The archives need to be maintained so that we have lineage and genetic history.

Oh, like you come from two humans and are one of two actives they produced. Leska didn t play games.

Arcady sat up. You know about that?

Of course. Cadence is a very good friend.

A sister when I had none. I was the same for her.

I was already in a group home run by some very nice people.

The Palmers. When Cadence came to us, shivering and terrified, I was assigned to help her because I was the least threatening, and she looked like she had been threatened a bit.

I got her clothing from the storehouse and set her up in her room.

There was a separate bed, and she asked me to stay, so I stayed.

We became roommates, and she graduated two years ahead of me.

What did she say about her family?

She said she activated when she was six.

That the rhythms she put out made her smile and dance, but she had to remove her synthetic clothing to do it.

Her parents started to beat her when they caught her, and then they put her in longer, uglier clothing that she couldn t harmonize through.

They realized that they could punish her for being an active and then just cover it up.

She was known to be quiet anyway, so no one at the school noticed, and then you activated, and her beatings got worse.

Arcady stared. What? I was there?

It went on under everyone s nose. You were there, the authorities were there, and no one saw a damned thing. Her back is scarred from shoulder to knees. She can blur it a bit now if someone is looking. It upsets people. There is no way that it isn t what you are looking at.

They were beating her? I was right there. Arcady looked lost.

You were focused on the changes in your own body, and they had always treated Cadence like that, so there wasn t anything different. They never told anyone she was an active. She was just a naughty child. Families have them, and some deal with them quietly.

She ran after me.

She did. She ran six years after you left.

That was when she realized that she wasn t alone and why you left.

That there was another active in the family.

She found you and Thomas at the shelter, and she spoke to Thomas.

He said that there weren t any extra funds for her, that you two had your hands full staying on top of things.

Arcady blinked. If he weren t in jail, I would break his face.

Indeed, but this is not your story.

Arcady jolted. Right.

She ran to Aksalla because they welcomed actives. She was attacked when she was making her way, but they made the mistake of getting her naked, and she harmonized them.

What does that mean?

She made them at one with the universe, or she turned them to sludge. Choose what you feel is best.

Arcady blinked slowly.

She was shot entering Aksalla, and it was something we bonded over.

But this isn t my story either. Not yet.

She pled her case in front of a court and explained the lack of resources and the very definite danger she was in.

They assigned her to my group home, and that is where we met.

I told her I wasn t capable of hurting her, and she smiled and hugged me.

How old were you?

I was ten or twelve. We had just escaped from Uradda. Those with me needed a lot of medical attention and were given to families who wanted to adopt.

What?

I drove a bus full of infants and toddlers out of Uradda s premier lab, where they were taking known active genetics and trying to silence it.

I don t know what made me or how. Anyway, I was shot getting out of the van.

Someone was really nervous. I held my gut as they called for backup, and I got the names, ages, and sexes of the babies on file as the little ones wailed and I bled out.

It was quite an evening. After that, I was healed by Dr. Torenne and sent to a group home.

I don t know where the kids are, but they are better here than there.

Arcady nodded. So, you are my sister s childhood friend.

Leska said softly, I am Cadence s childhood friend. She stopped being your sister a very long time ago.

What?

What is her favourite colour, cake, flower? What does she want to do for her birthday next month? What is her favourite fabric? When she was a child, where did she hide so she could practice her harmonics?

Arcady blinked. I...

Right. So, if you want to introduce yourself again, let her be herself.

Cut the past off. All you share is genetics right now.

If you want there to be more, you are going to have to go eighty percent of the way.

She s already been rejected by family more than anyone should have to be.

She is being accepted and welcomed by Raek and Im-bar.

Let her have that. Let her have joy without trying to insert yourself into it.

You are a researcher looking to keep track of changes in her activation.

Stay in that lane until she reaches for you.

Right now, she can t trust you. She had a nerve-racking insemination, and you were right there, laughing and cooing like you were close, and when she started getting praise, you angled to block it so that it could be directed at you. Yes, you need therapy.

Arcady blinked rapidly. Right. Can we start this again?

Sure. My name is Leska, and I was an Uraddan experiment. She kept going, and Arcady was all business.