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I envy his control. Mine has a tendency to lash out in violet arcs. My people are safest when I am not with them. When the chaos inside breaks through my control, I am glad Blaize and Allele have my back. Fieri would, too, if he was on this patrol with us.

“Is everything on this ship archaic?” Eluni crosses her arms and leans against the swooping archway of the cockpit door. “Your ship looks like some sort of primordial fossil.”

Blaize shakes his head. “Why her , Aura? How can Allele think she’s compatible when she’s…”

Allele doesn’t say anything. I’ve asked her before how she chooses the soldiers she permits, but she never explains beyond what she already has.

“She’s just the munitions tech we got assigned since Fieri got pulled for the precious metals transport.

We only have to listen to her for three more days,” I offer.

“Then you’re on vacation with me and Fieri. ”

“I can’t believe you’re lying to the king,” Blaize mutters under his breath.

I grunt in irritation. “That controlling, elitist Ionhead can kiss my purple ass.”

“Hate him that much?” Blaize grimaces like he regrets asking. He knows I do.

“He’s circumventing the laws regarding the health and safety of our people to maintain a manufactured hierarchy like all the other motherships’ rulers.

When we were on Amphir, we didn’t have kings.

We had an elected speaker for the elected representatives.

After the initial battles with the Nebulous Empire, we adopted a commanding figure for each vessel.

The military came to govern us to ensure survival, but a few refused to let go of their positions.

We need to team up and work together so we don’t become like the Nebs. ”

“Been digging into the forbidden archives again?” he asks.

“Why do you think they’re forbidden?” I glance askance at him. By the acknowledgment in his eyes, Blaize picks up my hint.

They’re trying to keep us in line, hide the truth. Centuries on ships make it easy for many to forget we were once equal. We built ships then. We made it to the stars because we worked together.

“Did you hear me?” Eluni asks.

Blaize and I turn together. “Yes!”

Her eyebrows lift. “Fine, whatever. I’ll just give myself a tour.”

“Good.” Blaize looks pissed. He values our old ways as much as I do, though he doesn’t know much about them. He doesn’t have the Royal access to records that I do. His respect for tradition is the main reason Allele permits him to pilot her. It’s the same with Fieri.

Only he and Fieri have had my back all these years in service.

Other than them, I have to look outside of our species to the last Lazariot, Elix, or General Vitus of Nytheralia.

I’ve made a recent friend with General Viriden of Isonia that Allele approves of as well.

But it saddens me how few of my kind she trusts.

We have traveled far from our ancient ways, ones that once made us great innovators and the first into space—at least in this corner of the universe.

Once Eluni is gone, I can speak my mind again. “We are losing our natural affinities in order to stay ahead of other species in advancing our starship capabilities when we have to accept that another species, like the Isonians and Vinym, might outpace us because they simply adapt better.

“Our kings regard their intellect as more powerful than our nature. But until we are beings of mind only, we must cater to the needs of the vessels that carry us.

“You think we’re not adapting?” Blaize asks.

“I fear we are maladapting . We need a balance,” I admit. “We need to remember what it means to be Amphiran.”

He hums a low note in distaste. “Your father must’ve tried to match you again?”

“When does he not?”

Blaize shifts to lean sideways in his seat. “He’s afraid of losing the throne.”

He should lose it. “There are others who would guide us better.”

Like you, Allele says in my mind.

Stop it, I tell her. I do not want those thoughts in my head. The more I think about what she’s suggested, the more my skin tingles and sparks from growing anger. Never suggest that again.

Understood, Aura. But you are special in the eyes of your people, whether you like it or not.

Allele, keep it up, and I’ll rip you out of my head.

Blaize reaches over and taps the siphon on my armrest. A draining feeling swallows me until I feel calm and balanced again.

“It’s getting worse,” he says. “ I can feel my hair standing on end when you get charged up. You need release.”

I rest my chin in a palm and stare out at the underside of our colony. Our ships are cloaked, but I can see them without Allele’s scanners. Descendants of Torchbearers can, or so Allele has told me.

But neither of my parents are. Not my father or Queen Avarylis. Which means, one of them isn’t my biological parent, or someone lied to them about their genetics when they were mapped before their bond was confirmed.

The genealogists refused to map me on every ship and always acted scared when I arrived.

“Ow!” Eluni grunts down a passageway toward my room.

I open the camera feeds and see her stepping back from the door to my quarters. “I’m sorry. I failed to mention that Allele is alive .”

She looks wildly up and around until she finds the camera. “ Alive? What the fuck are you talking about? AI is not alive. ”

“ Allele has a Storm. Try to enter a room you’re not permitted into, and she’ll zap you.” I grin and sit back. “Must’ve got you good. We heard you up front.”

Eluni growls and holds her hand.

“She likes you even less than we do,” Blaize snorts.

Eluni huffs. “Why? I am a Four Comet Royal Guard! You’re the same rank as I am, just Rogues .”

“You called her a fossil,” I remind her. “Allele is a beautiful ship, primordial in a powerful, not primitive, way. She listens better than any female I’ve encountered.”

Eluni scoffs. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Blaize presses a fist to his mouth and tamps down a laugh.

“And she is the reason we are alive, and the other three ships didn’t make it out of the Cicarron Nebula battle last month,” I add. “So do not disrespect her, or I will teach you a lesson about respecting your vulnerability.”

Eluni quiets. “Is that a threat?”

“A warning to be nice.” I glare back at her. Eluni’s black hair is pulled tight into a braid, and her green uniform is flawless. She serves Elders and their delegates, not Royal families, or her outfit would be dark purple.

Allele opens the door to the quarters assigned to Eluni.

“What’s that for?” Eluni asks.

I snicker behind a hand. “I think Allele’s putting you on timeout.”

“No way.”

A green bolt arcs behind Eluni, from the ceiling to the floor, making her jump toward the open door.

“Alright, I’m going!” Eluni walks into her room.

Allele shuts the door.

“Make her put on gray Rogue armor, Allele. She’s one of us now.”

“Can’t believe you want one of those,” Blaize remarks.

“A female?” I ask.

He nods.

I’ve seen the way he’s looked at other females on various missions over the years.

“How did you get up the courage?” he asks. “I mean, you know it’s going to be televised.”

“I do. But I figure as long as I can get there, my father won’t try to stop me. He won’t risk destroying intergalactic relations.”

“Why sign up?” he asks.

“Freedom to choose.”

Blaize looks over at me with pity. “I admit, that is one reason I’m glad I wasn’t born into royalty or from an upper class.”

The coms light up with an incoming request. “Assistance required, Mothership Tiatith , Dock 136. Reply if you can assist.”

I shouldn’t break formation. My father doesn’t want me on his ship. But Ephinium is there, and Blaize enjoys her baked goods as much as I do. Dock 136 isn’t far from where her shop is in the marketplace.

Reply . I check the navigation. ETA one minute. Allele, take us there.

She sends the reply and takes the controls from Blaize.

“Damn it. You two are always making plans without me.”

The door to Blaize’s quarters slides open. He looks back at it. “Oh, haha, Allele. Very funny.”

She closes his door. Allele knows he’s not getting up when we’re moving at such a quick pace. It’s how we know she’s capable of making a joke.

Eluni calls up to us from her room, asking what’s happening.

“Trouble with the supply shipment, I think,” Blaize replies as he pulls up the communication logs for Tiatith .

Allele docks us in a hangar not far from 136 as Tiatith’s security sends updates over the com. “Unapproved species breech. Hostility brewing. Civilians at risk. Control the situation with minimal force.”

I get up before we’ve fully docked and hustle to the ramp. Blaize is right behind me.

“Can someone let me out?” Eluni asks from behind her door.

“Allele?” I ask.

Eluni’s door slides open. She joins us, still in her royal armor. “I’m never getting back on this ship.”

“Your choice.” Blaize doesn’t seem to mind the prospect of it just being us two again. But we need a third body for patrols, and I’d like a munitions tech with us. Anyone who can guard and keep our weapons in top shape is someone I want on my team.

“You just have to treat Allele like a person. Show her she can trust you, and she’ll fight to keep you safe instead of treating you like a toddler,” I tell Eluni as we run down the ramp. “That takes time.”

My father never treats me like an adult no matter what I do because I won’t do the one thing he wants me to—mate with some aristocratic bitch to maintain a hierarchy no one wants but Royals.

I just have to get through a few more days. Then I’ll be free to be with whomever I meet, and Amphirans will just have to deal with it.

I hope my plan works.