Page 1 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly (Tyton #1)

We’re not discussing my sex life in front of my mother.” Callie sprawled across the Hexcel table, hands pulling at her short blonde hair. Sparx only grinned, satisfied with the amount of chaos she’d caused.

“I already know everything.” Cat called out from the storage room in the back.

“What?!” Callie shrieked. “I need you to define everything. Like, right now!”

Cat ignored the order. She rounded the counter holding up a grey jumper. “This one still has some cotton in it. It must be from before. What do you think? It matches your eyes.” Cat held the sweater up to Callie’s chest.

“No, no, no, back up,” Callie sputtered. “What do you mean by everything ?”

“What?” Cat shrugged. “Sparx has a big mouth.”

Callie glowered at Sparx. Sparx only grinned wider.

“That’s why she’s my favourite.” Cat dipped her head toward Sparx.”

“Sparx isn’t even your kid,” Callie protested.

“She’s close enough. And if my own daughter won’t tell me anything, I have to pick a new favourite.”

“All I said,” Sparx spread her hands innocently, “was that there’s a Lumijute demo at Binge tonight and you haven’t been laid in two years.”

Cat examined the sweater. “Too big,” she decided. She huffed and refolded the sweater.

“No,” Callie reminded her, “you said if I didn’t come out with you tonight, you’d bring every dyke you knew over to my flat to fuck me in the arse.”

“Same thing.” Sparx sipped her can of NRG.

“That was probably a bit too far, dear,” Cat reprimanded. She returned to the storeroom to find something else.

“Sorry Ms Therin.” Sparx did not seem sorry.

“Also, it hasn’t been two years,” Callie mumbled.

“Yeah, so, I’m not counting that thing I set you up on.” Sparx held out her hands as though she were being magnanimous.

Callie pointed her straw at Sparx. “The thing where the girl was looking for a third and you didn’t bother to tell me?”

“What? Do you have something against poly?” Sparx made a face. “So judgemental,” she muttered.

“No, I’d just like to know what I’m getting into first!” Callie knew Sparx was pushing her buttons on purpose. She also knew she couldn’t help but respond. It irritated her that she fell for it every time.

Sparx tipped the edge of the empty can against the table as if considering it. “You want to know everything about a person before you get in bed with them?” She looked up to see Callie’s slate-coloured eyes boring into her. “That’s just not realistic, Cal.”

“I’d like to at least know if they’re bringing their boyfriend along,” Callie hissed. “That was the most awkward experience of my life.”

“ The most awkward? I find that hard to believe.” Sparx rolled her eyes. “Don’t you like being tied up?”

“She does,” Cat called from the back.

“MOM!” Callie turned beet red.

“What’s the big deal? You’ve seen plenty of penises before,” Sparx continued.

“ In clubs , Sparx. There’s a difference. They’re not inches from my face.” Callie waved her straw like a flaccid dick in front of Sparx’s nose, dripping NRG on it.

“How was I supposed to know you’d be so dramatic about it?” Sparx squealed, relishing the attention.

“Ten years, Sparx! You’ve known I was a lesbian for ten years!” Callie huffed and threw herself back into the plastic cushion of the booth.

“Not even a little bit?” Sparx tilted her head.

Callie frowned so intensely her forehead hurt.

“Fine, message received. I’ll never set you up again.

” Sparx sulked for a moment before adding, “What about Akna? She’s been into you for a year.

It should be obvious, even to your useless lesbian senses. ”

“Akna is a fuckboi,” Callie said, tersely.

Sparx shook her head. “And that matters how? You’ve had sex on first dates before.”

“Yeah, if I liked them and thought it might go somewhere.”

“So, it’s never just sex with you then?”

“Haven’t we been over this a million times already?” Callie whined, exasperated. “Also, I work with Akna. That would make things super awkward.”

Sparx lifted a finger. “More or less awkward than the poly couple?”

“Why would that matter?” Callie’s adrenaline started rising again.

“Just a question,” Sparx said defensively. “Anyway, I have to go to work.”

Callie stood up to hug Sparx. “You’re a pain in the arse.”

“And you love it.” Sparx whispered giddily. “Bye Ms Therin,” she called as she left.

Callie groaned as she sat back down in the booth.

“Don’t you have to work today too?” Cat called from behind the counter.

“Yeah, but I can stay a few more minutes.” Callie draped herself across the table again. Cat slid into the booth across from her. “You know she’s just worried about you, right?”

“I know.” Callie whined.

Cat ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair. “I am too,” she said quietly.

“Yeah, but that’s your job, mom.” Callie’s voice was muffled against the tabletop. “It’s not like you dated much after you left dad. Maybe Sparx should focus her charity work on you.”

Cat couldn’t deny that. She had this shop in a proper building, at least, surrounded by second-hand clothing and a few tables and chairs for people to socialise around.

The Vendr had a decent assortment of drinks and she made enough to keep the place and afford food.

But it took up most of her time and energy and she could see Callie ending up the same.

“I just had no interest in it after your father.” She decided that was the safe response.

“He hurt you that bad, huh?” Callie thought she was being clever.

“Nothing like Brin.” Cat was not going to be outdone.

Callie flicked her eyes upward to see Cat’s knowing smirk.

“Don’t try that on me,” Cat grinned. “I’m still the master of passive aggression.”

“Fine. Both Brin and Dad were pieces of shit.”

“Hmph,” her mother snorted. “Do you really want to end up like me?”

Callie lolled her head on the table. “There’s no good way to answer that question, mom.”

“I supposed not,” she conceded. “ I don’t want you to end up like me then. Better?”

Callie rolled her eyes. “No worries there. I’ll never have an ungrateful lesbian daughter.”

“Oh, please.” Cat gave an exaggerated wave. I knew I wouldn’t get grandkids when you were sixteen. I didn’t care. Your father was the one who was pissy about it.”

“Really?” Callie eyed her sceptically.

“You’re too old now anyway. And the older I get, the more I think we should just let it all burn to the fucking ground.”

“Mother!”

“What, you think your mother can’t swear?”

Callie laughed. “No, it’s just weird.”

“Fuckpisscunt,” Cat blurted out with an impish smirk on her face.

Callie took her mother’s hand. “That was probably the most wholesome swearing I’ve ever heard.”

Cat placed her other hand on Callie’s cheek and tilted her face to look at her. “Good. Now I need you to promise me you’ll move on.”

DECEMBER 20 2267

“We have him.”

Sesi stood up, the chair scraping across the floor. “You’re sure it’s him?”

Siku disconnected his keyboard from the Hexaline wall. “Very.”

“How?”

“One of his own.” Siku straightened out his jacket. He always did prefer the look of classic business attire compared to his sister’s more tactical dress. “He was suspected of skimming a while back and ran while he could.”

Sesi curled her lip. “If they knew where he was, why didn’t they kill him first?”

“See, this is why I do the negotiations.” Siku kept his face a perfect neutral.

Sesi failed to appreciate her brother’s diplomatic finesse.

He would have to elaborate to get the praise he deserved.

“If I’d gone to Tethys and told the Styx that I wanted him, they would have made us pay for the information.

However, he was hiding out in Hyperion. Not their turf. ”

“Not ours either.”

“No, but it means they hesitated. The Styx don’t want to start shit with the Harpies, they’d have to cross our turf to get there and risk pissing off two districts.”

“So, you offered to take care of the problem for them?” Sesi smiled, connecting the dots.

Siku nodded. “They even paid us for it.”

“Damn. What about the Harpies? Are we going to have to deal with them now?”

“No word so far. I sent in some of the guys we brought in last week.”

“What the hell, Siku? You sent in recruits? We’ve been after this fuckstain for months!”

“First, you’ve been after him for months.” Siku retorted. “Second, they’re complete unknowns. Nothing to tie them to us. And third…”

“Undetectable by the biosig sensors, I know.” Sesi ran her fingers along her lip.

A silence fell over them. Siku stared, unblinking. Waiting, but Sesi didn’t break.

“What is it.” It was a statement, not a question.

Sesi sighed. “Why haven’t you been after him. Why has it only been me ?”

Siku looked off into the corner of the room, lips tight. “Are you implying that I don’t care about her?”

“Do you?”

“We were six, Sesi.”

“So, no.”

“No,” Siku drew a long breath. “This was a lot of trouble. For someone who’s been gone more than two decades. Someone I barely knew. Someone we barely knew. And it won’t change a damn thing.”

“It’ll send a message,” Sesi argued.

“No, it won’t. He’s a nobody.”

Sesi huffed. “I’m going to bed.”

Siku nodded and let her leave.

Sesi’s room could be described as spartan . She kept no mementos or artwork on the walls. Only a bookshelf full of old books, files and magazines, all paper from before Hexcel had replaced everything made from wood. Even that was obsolete. Physical media of any type was a rarity now.

Sesi sat on her small, neatly made bed on the left, and opened her small Hexcel dresser next to it. Inside, under her folded shirts lay the only thing that had any real meaning. Her mother’s ulu.

She had left it in the corrugated aluminium MobilePod that had been their home since before Sesi and Siku were born.

Qimmiq had looked after them when she worked in the city.

Sesi still didn’t know what she did. Qimmiq might have, but he had never said.

They had never asked. One day, she didn’t come back, and the knife was all they had to remember her.