Page 4 of Xel: Broken Bond

XEL

We all filed into the meeting room. Aiden took a seat, and Kathy sat down opposite him, folding her arms as she waited to hear what he had to say. I moved to sit beside her, but glanced at the second man as I did so… and stopped in my tracks, my eyes wide. The man who’d come with Aiden had pointed ears, slightly larger than a human’s would be, and up close, I could see the fine pattern of scales over his face – scales, not skin.

“You’re Vangravian,” I blurted out, and the man grinned. Out in the foyer, he’d been almost indistinguishable from a human – from a distance, at least.

“Yes, I am,” he said, and then his brown colouring melted away to reveal a deep, ocean blue. All Vangravians had scales that were some shade of blue, in their natural colouring, but they could range anywhere from a deep, midnight blue – some of them almost black – through to a pale sky blue, like mine, or even a vivid aquamarine, almost green, in the right light.

“I’m Kade,” he said, offering his hand. I shook it, having learned the gesture from observing the endless stream of guestsat the hotel. Shaking hands was not something that people generally did, outside of the Alliance.

“I’m Xel.” I hadn’t seen another Vangravian since I’d left Eumad at the end of my training.

“Wait, wait, hang on a minute,” Kathy said, leaping up from her chair. “Youowna dimari? No way in hell. Dimariprotectionofficer? When you’re exploiting one of your very own? What the fuck is this?”

Aiden didn’t react in the slightest to Kathy’s accusation. Instead, Kade sat down beside Aiden, calmly gesturing for Kathy to be seated. Taking my cue from him, I sat as well, relieved beyond measure at seeing another one of my own kind. “Aiden found me in an abandoned crate out in the jungle during one of his missions,” Kade explained. “He didn’t realise I was in there until I’d already bonded with him. We had a few difficulties in learning to work together, but now I’m officially enrolled in the military, I’m on their payroll, and Aiden and I work together to assist other dimari-owner partnerships to ensure all the dimari are being treated with kindness and respect.”

Aiden sat quietly while Kade explained himself and their relationship, and he showed no displeasure whatsoever at his dimari being so outspoken. I found it rather bizarre to watch, as it defied a large number of standards of behaviour that dimari were taught during their training.

Kathy, too, seemed rather taken aback. “Oh. You’re allowed to speak for yourself? Well, that’s… quite the turnaround.” She glanced at me again. “So what about Xel here? You can’t just re-sell him, or ship him off to some distant planet. What happens to him now?”

Aiden smiled. “I’m genuinely liking how protective you are of him. But I’m actually not surprised by that. Let’s start at the beginning.” He pulled up a message on his comm and showed it to Kathy. “This is the message I received this morning. Asyou can see, it doesn’t accuse you of being involved in anything illegal. Quite the opposite, in fact. The tip was anonymous – the military can track down who sent it, if we really have to – but it states that we should talk to you because you can help us with our investigation – the implication being that you’re an ally, not a suspect.”

Kathy relaxed a little more. “I’ve tried to be,” she said, wringing her hands in her lap. “Sometimes it’s like being between the proverbial rock and the hard place. But I do my best.”

“I appreciate that,” Aiden said. Then he turned to me. “Xel. I believe your master was… Hold on,” he cut himself off suddenly, turning back to Kathy. “Out in the foyer, you said you’d spent the past three years trying to protect Xel.” He looked back at me. “You’ve been here forthree years?”

“Yes,” I said. Why did it matter how long I’d been here? Why was that length of time so shocking? Couldn’t he skip over all this and just tell me where I was going to live?

“And what have you been doing for that time?”

“Cleaning the hotel.” I was fairly sure that that brief snippet wasn’t going to satisfy him, so I added, “My master appointed Kathy to oversee most of my work. She’s been organising my shifts and supervising me.”

Aiden cleared his throat. “I see.” From his expression, there was something here that I was missing. But I wasn’t quite sure what it was. There were a large number of Alliance customs that eluded me, since this culture was quite different from anything I’d been taught to expect during my training. I’d adapted as best I could, but I was still aware that there were a few gaps in my understanding.

Aiden chewed his lip, then glanced at Kade.

Kade sat up straighter, apparently picking up on the unspoken question – though I had no idea what had just passedbetween them. “How do you feel about your master’s passing?” Kade asked me bluntly.

I still wasn’t sure how I was feeling. How was I supposed to put that vague disquiet into words? “I don’t know. Confused, mostly.”

Kade’s frown deepened, and I caught a ripple of violet across his neck, just above his collar. The involuntary change in colour was a typical sign of agitation in Vangravians. Did he disapprove of my lack of grief? If so, then he was entirely justified in his censure. But instead of scolding me, he changed the subject – to one that brought me no small degree of relief.

“According to Alliance law, when a person dies, their belongings typically pass to their nearest living relative. Unless, of course, they’ve left a legal will dictating otherwise. We’ve made inquiries this morning into Mr Ronson’s relatives, but we’re waiting on official confirmation as to who his heir would be.” He glanced at Aiden, who nodded in agreement.

“Yes, indeed,” Aiden said, his mouth tight, his expression studious.

“But if – when – we locate his heir,” Kade went on, “it would be expected that your service would transfer to the recipient of his estate. I realise, of course, that you’re not able to bond with this person the way you did with your master. But Alliance culture would consider Mr Ronson’s heir to be your new rightful master. Is that something you think you could adapt to? It’s not the typical way dimari would be treated on Basub, or on Polvron, but that is the expected standard here.”

I took the time to consider what he was saying seriously. He was correct in saying that this arrangement was out of the ordinary. On most planets, as I’d already contemplated, I would have been deemed useless for anything other than manual labour. The Alliance way seemed both more sensible and more appealing.

But, as Kade had also pointed out, I would not be capable of bonding to my new master. Dimari were trained using advanced neuro-engineering technology to alter our brains in a way that allowed us to bond with our master the instant we stepped out of our travelling crates. As a result of the bond, we were then compelled to obey that person for the rest of our lives. But the bond was both irreversible and able to be activated only once in a dimari’s lifetime.

But even so, if I was deemed to legally belong to my master’s relative – his brother or sister, perhaps, given that I didn’t think he had any children – then there was no reason I couldn’t willingly and diligently serve this new person, even if I wasn’t bonded to them. “Yes,” I said, feeling more relieved than anything. “That sounds very… reasonable.”

Another look passed between Kade and Aiden, and both of them seemed relieved. “Excellent,” Aiden said. “We’ll follow up the official investigation and let you know what the outcome is as soon as we have more information. But while we’re waiting for that, I do have a couple more questions for you.” He glanced at Kathy this time. “Would I be able to ask you to wait outside for a few minutes?” he asked hesitantly. Given her thoroughly protective stance over me, Aiden was likely expecting her to put up quite a fuss.

“Why do you need to talk to him alone?” she asked, her response fairly predictable. “Why can’t you say whatever it is in front of me?”

It was Kade who answered the question. “We need to ask him about his training,” he said, calmly but firmly. “Dimari training protocols can be very intense, and they generally don’t conform to Alliance ethics. But we need to find out exactly which skills Xel was taught, so that we can arrange suitable circumstances in his new role.”