Chapter 1

Virathea Tzilank squirmed in her chair as she filled out her daily reports. She hated paperwork. Unfortunately that was a large part of her new job. She knew this when she accepted it but she had agreed to it because it was an important position and because Queen Kiasyphia had personally asked her to. In addition to General Kristakala and Admiral Jedanaran, there were two assistant commanders in both the Sapphire Royal Guard ground forces and space forces. It was these four assistant officers who really ran the affairs of the Guard. Of those who ran the ground forces, one was in charge of the warriors that protected the Palace grounds and the other was in command of the bodyguard units that protected the various members of the Royal Family. While the former commanded more troops, the latter was a slightly more prestigious position.

It was the bodyguard units which Virathea had been put in charge of. She would have had it no other way since it was as a bodyguard that she had served for the past several cyankas. She had grown to love her previous charges, Princess Feyalisa's family, during her cyankas as the head of their protection detail. They were as precious to her as her own family. In fact, family was precisely how Feyalisa and her mating group viewed Virathea even if Virathea herself sometimes had a hard time with that. It was not that she did not have the same feelings, she did, it was just that her training told her that she needed to keep an emotional distance between herself and her charges in order to do her job properly. Whether she still believed this or not was a debatable point. Either way, she was always happy to see Feyalisa and smiled as her Princess walked into her office.

Feyalisa looked quite different now than she had the first time Virathea had seen her. Virathea could easily remember Feyalisa from that time. The handmade clothes that just barely covered her body, the waist length mane of dark red hair that seemed almost wild even though it was well kept and the haughty, fearless expression she gave a group of ten warriors pointing weapons at her even though she had been completely unarmed were all striking memories for Virathea. In spite of the circumstances she had been living in for several cyankas at that point, she had still looked every inch the proud scion of the Zerleen Royal House. That was one of the few things that had not changed over the cyankas. Virathea looked Feyalisa over briefly as she entered the room. The clothing she was currently wearing, while basically simple, was still much more refined than what she was wearing back then. Her hair was still the beautiful dark red color it had always been but it was now trimmed to a more manageable length, just to the middle of her back, and styled in a refined manner. Her expression was the most changed, Virathea thought. Now she was giving a look of friendly familiarity to the colonel; much different than the one she had flashed at the young captain Virathea had been five cyankas ago.

Virathea began to stand as her Princess entered, but Feyalisa waved her back to her seat. She finished walking to the front of Virathea's desk and casually sat down in the chair located there.

"You look like you have acclimated to your new job, or perhaps not." Feyalisa said teasingly.

Virathea growled lightly and shook her head. "I hate paperwork. That is all this job is. Reports, requests, reviews, schedules, paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork!"

Feya laughed at Virathea's frustration. "Welcome to my world, Colonel."

Virathea sighed. "Apologies for venting my frustrations in your presence, Your Highness."

"It is perfectly alright, Virathea." Feya responded.

"May I do something for you, Your Highness?" Virathea asked.

Feyalisa shook her head. "I merely stopped by to see you. You have been back for six months now and I rarely get to talk to you."

Virathea nodded a bit. Feyalisa had always loved chatting with her when she was on duty. Not that Virathea minded talking to her and it always made protecting your charge easier if they got along with you, but now.

"Apologies, Your Highness. It is just that..." Virathea said while indicating the inbox full of papers on her desk.

"It's not you fault." Feyalisa chuckled. "And I know that Tikashira is in charge of my security now, not you. I like her well enough, but you were there for so long that I do not think I shall ever tire of coming to you for a casual chat."

Virathea nodded in acquiescence to Feyalisa's request. The two of them would spend the next hour talking about various things including how the Guard was recovering its strength and how their respective families were doing, particularly Ariarisha. Even though it would put her behind in her work, Virathea really did not mind this distraction. She hoped to lead the Royal Guard one day and Feyalisa would most likely be Queen when that happened. Therefore it was in Virathea's interests to maintain the relationship she had developed with Feyalisa. Besides that, she thought as she leaned back and laughed with Feyalisa over a comment, she truly loved spending personal times like this with her.

Velakari was sitting comfortably in her stateroom on the small starship she was aboard. She had her hands lightly clasped together and her eyes were closed as she lightly hummed a pleasant tune to herself. The vessel she was on was a transport belonging to House Zerleen. As an experienced Priestess of the Jade Order, Velakari could easily have requisitioned one of their ships for this trip. Since she was going to the planet of Lilac, which was jointly run by all the Orders as a monastery planet, on an official trip, she would also have been justified in doing so. She much preferred the ships of her bonded mate's House however. They were, generally speaking, far more comfortable than the average transports operated by the Orders. Velakari was not so senior that she could have requested one of the nicer transports owned by her Order. These were reserved for the members of the Order's Ruling Council; the three highest members on each planet, the Head of the Order and her assistants. Even the smallest and most mundane transports belonging to the Royal Family however were richly accoutered and very comfortable. Velakari, Priestess though she was, enjoyed comfortable travel as much as the next dizyntk. So, whenever she traveled, she always used one of House Zerleen's ships.

The ship she currently was on was, as a matter of fact, the smallest passenger starship that the Royal Family owned and the only one that Velakari used for things like this. It had a crew of eight and accommodations for four passengers in the comfort that a member of royalty would expect. It was also an older ship and had been on the verge of being sold off when Velakari began to use it on a regular basis. She had been somewhat embarrassed when, after Queen Kiasyphia had heard that she enjoyed using the small ship when on business for her Order, the Queen ordered a complete refit of the old vessel. Velakari had bashfully told her that this was not necessary, but Kiasyphia would not hear of it. She insisted that, as her granddaughter's bonded mate, she was a member of her family and that she deserved the same comforts as on any of the larger transports.

The ship had even been renamed. Originally it was called "Little Sprinter." This had been due to its small size and, at the time of its purchase some thirty cyankas previously, relatively high speed. Its new name was "Jade Sprinter." referring to the Order of its most frequent user, much to Velakari's delight. Thanks to the refit, which included new engines and star drive, it was still a fast ship; the fastest transport owned by House Zerleen in fact. This had engendered its retention of the "Sprinter" part of its name.

Velakari had not been to Lilac in almost a cyanka and the reason for her visit this time was the reverse of the last. Last time she had brought a Priestess here to finish her training. Now she was coming back to pick her up, just as she had promised she would do. She opened her eyes as the ship's Captain announced that they were four minutes from entering Lilac's atmosphere. She fastened the restraints on her chair in preparation for this. Normally she would not really need to do this. Landing on most inhabited planets was a simple procedure. It was wise to keep one's seat but restraints were not necessary.

Unfortunately, Lilac was not like most planets. Lilac did not primarily orbit the sun of its star system as all the other planets inhabited by the Dizyntk did. Instead it was a tidally locked satellite of a gas giant located at the outer edge of the system's habitable zone. On top of this, its atmosphere was just eleven percent oxygen. This made it feel as if one was at 5000 meters even while at sea level on the planet. This made it just barely able to sustain Dizyntk life. The problem for landing a ship however was due to Lilac's atmosphere being highly charged, causing large lightning storms to occur with alarming frequency. Thanks to its position relative to the gas giant it circled, it also was unapproachable by starships that relied only on their star drives for propulsion. The gravitational field of the large planet would not allow these drives to function well enough for them to escape once they had entered it. Therefore only ships which also had strong conventional drives, like the Jade Sprinter, could operate into and out of Lilac. It would not be the first choice, or the second for that matter, for a planet on which to build cities. This was why it was used for the purpose it was. The Orders did not need to worry about having much in the way of visitors here.

In the event, the ship made its way through Lilac's roiled atmosphere with little trouble. Velakari whispered a small prayer of thanks as she felt the ship touch down and made her way to the ship's main hatch by herself. The crew would remain onboard as no dizyntk who was not a Priestess was allowed to set foot on Lilac, not even the Empress. As soon as Velakari exited the ship and was able to look around, she could not see why anyone would want to. Lilac was, for the most part, a bleak planet. What plant life existed was mainly grass and mosses. The fierce storms that lashed the planet's surface with fair regularity were not conducive to the appearance of anything resembling trees. Even the planet's animal life was mostly small and spent a lot of its time underground. Then there was the sunlight, or relative lack thereof. The planet was on the outer edge of the system's habitable zone and this made for weak light even at midday, on the rare day that was not overcast. Combined with the fact that only half the planet received direct sunlight, due to its being tidally locked to the gas giant it circled, one could understand that Lilac held little potential for sightseers.

Velakari knew all of this firsthand of course. She herself had trained on the planet for five cyankas when she was younger. In fact, it was only recently that she had been away from the planet for as long as she had trained there. She softly shook her head to clear these thoughts. The reason she was here had nothing to do with herself. She ignored the wind that whipped her hair and refused to even raise the hood of her robes over her head. Truth be told, she had always enjoyed the wind in her hair, even on Lilac. As she approached the entrance to the Temple next to the landing area, the door opened and Velakari saw a Priestess with golden hair waiting for her. It was the dizyntk she had come to pick up.

Veenalara Thersin had wanted to be a Priestess for a long time; much longer than most dizyntk would readily believe. A real Priestess, not just one in name only as she had been for so long. She had readily agreed to the idea that Velakari had proposed to her a cyanka ago as she sat with an unconscious Eric Wolf in the healing center room he had been in. It meant leaving Eric for at least cyanka. It also meant that she would not be able to live with him for some while after that, but she would be able to see him as much as she wished after her training was complete. The most important thing to her however was that she was now a fully trained priestess. The only question that was left to be answered was that of whether the Empress had agreed to the idea that Velakari had suggested.

Velakari came to a stop in front of Veenalara. Veenalara bowed her head. "Welcome back to Lilac, Sister Velakari." she said.

Velakari looked her over before returning the bow. When last she had seen Veenalara, she had been given the simple white robes that all training priestesses wore on Lilac, regardless of their Order. Now she was wearing the more elaborate hooded robes of a fully trained Priestess who was studying on Lilac. They were also no longer the white of a priestess in training but the light magenta of the Nebula Order.

"It is my pleasure to have returned in order to fulfill my promise to you, Sister Veenalara." Velakari said as she bowed her head in response.

"Has the Empress agreed to the idea you had?" Veenalara asked as she raised her head.

"She was ... hesitant, at first. But she finally conceded that it was probably the best solution any of us could come up with." Velakari replied. "That being said however, is Revered Sister Isalifina here yet?"

Alara's eyes went wide at that name. "Revered Sister Isalifina? She is coming here?"

Isalifina was the Head Priestess of the Silver Order, the largest of the Major Orders. As such she was considered the highest ranking Priestess in the Imperium. She was also an advisor and long time friend of Empress Ziniadyra.

Velakari chuckled a bit. "I take it from your reaction that she is not. Yes, she is coming here."

She then explained, "The only way the Empress will grant her final permission is if her most trusted advisor goes over your training with your instructor. Revered Sister Theracini must be satisfied with your training and give Revered Sister Isalifina her assurance that you can keep your powers under proper control."

Veenalara sighed and nodded. She knew that this was a major sticking point. She had actually been able to complete her priestess training in about four months. The other twelve had been spent relentlessly training to keep her immense powers on a tight leash, no matter the provocation. Since knowledge of her existence as a Faylantkrana was tightly controlled, the Head Priestess of Lilac and her two closest assistants had been in direct charge of training her.

"I do hope that you have not given Revered Sister Theracini too much trouble." Velakari said in light tone.

Before Veenalara could reply to this another voice answered for her.

"Of course she has not, Sister Velakari." the elderly Priestess approaching them said.

Both Velakari and Veenalara bowed to her. "It is good to see you are well, Revered Sister." Velakari said.

"And you, Sister Velakari." Theracini replied. "It has been a most exhilarating challenge to actually be able to train one such as Sister Veenalara. It was also a pleasure as she is truly desirous of being able to serve. Luckily, we still had most of the old texts dealing with her unique training."

Veenalara blushed a bit at this praise. "Thank you for your kind words, Revered Sister."

"I think you will be able to do just fine in your new home." Theracini concluded.

Just then, another voice joined the conversation. "I am very happy to hear you say that, old friend."

Revered Sister Isalifina walked into the still open door of the Temple. The three Priestesses all bowed to her and said, "Welcome to Lilac, Revered Sister Isalifina."

She nodded to the three of them and then walked to her old friend, Sister Theracini. "Come and let us go to your office then, my friend, and review this one's progress." she said while smiling at Veenalara.

The two elder Sisters walked away while already discussing Veenalara's training. Velakari smiled at Alara and called back to the Captain of the Jade Sprinter. She told him that they would soon be lifting off with their planned guest.

Ariarisha Zerleen slowly awoke from a very deep sleep. She was still somewhat tired but also very happy. She had had a long, but fun night. She had had a long day yesterday as well. She would not dream of complaining however. Yesterday had been her tenth birthday. Her great grandmother had given her a splendid party. Afterwards she had a more intimate party with her friends. After that was the most intimate event of all in celebration of her tenth cyanka. This was with the dizyntk she loved more than anyone outside of her family. Actually she had come to live with her family as of yesterday, so Aria felt no need to make the distinction any longer. She looked at the beautiful girl snuggled next to her. Aria had her arms and tail wrapped around the sleeping form of her dearest friend, Lilavasi. She hugged her tighter and gently kissed the tips of her ears.

As she nuzzled the top of Vasi's head and inhaled the scent of her hair, she felt Vasi gently tighten her own embracing arms.

"Good morning, pretty girl." Aria said.

Vasi gave Aria's chest a soft lick before replying. "Pretty am I?"

"And sexy, and arousing, and charming, and smart..." Aria said.

Vasi, slightly embarrassed by this flood of compliments, interrupted Aria's rambling by tickling her. Aria returned the favor and the two continued this for a couple of minutes before Aria was able to pin her friend's arms to the bed. Lilavasi finally surrendered.

Vasi gave a derisive sniff. "So you won against a blind girl."

Aria snickered at this. "Against this particular blind girl, that is a praiseworthy feat."

Vasi slowly smiled at this. "Perhaps."

"Are you hungry?" Aria asked. She knew that she herself was starving.

"Very." Vasi answered. "But what time is it?"

Aria looked over at her clock. "Almost eleven in the morning. Why?"

Vasi giggled lightly. "Because your mother said that she did not want to see either of us out of your room until after midday."

"Our room." Aria corrected her friend.

Vasi nodded. "Yes, our room." She then felt Aria kiss her lightly on the lips.

"I suppose we can have some food brought to the room?" Aria suggested.

"A good idea." Vasi replied.

Aria released her hold on her and Vasi stretched each limb to its fullest as she slowly sat up. She winced just a little as she did so.

"Sore?" Aria asked with a smile.

"Yes, I am." Vasi replied. She ran her fingertips across the teeth marks on her shoulder. "In several places."

Ariarisha nodded in agreement. She too had felt the various pains all over her body. The soreness, not only from the marks her friend's teeth and claws had made but also the very recent loss of her virginity, was quite evident. Lilavasi had been unexpectedly aggressive last night.

Ariarisha wrapped her arms around Lilavasi's neck and kissed her. "Are you going to be like you were last night every time?"

Vasi smiled and nuzzled against Aria's neck. "Maybe. Did you enjoy it?"

"Goddess yes." Aria said. She had never known that it was possible to feel as good as Vasi had made her feel last night.

Vasi laughed and hugged her friend tightly. "Good. I will always leave you exhausted after a night of sex with me. This I swear on my House's honor."

Aria nearly fell back to the bed from laughing so hard.

Vasi sat upright quickly. "What is so funny about that!?" she demanded to know.

It took Aria a few seconds to get her laughter under control. In that time Lilavasi began to growl in irritation at her friend. Aria was able to get herself under control, barely. She cradled Vasi's face in her hands and planted light kisses all over it.

"I am sorry, Vasi." she said between kisses. "Forgive me. But, that is not something you need to swear on your House's honor. You just needed to say that you would keep doing it."

Vasi blushed as she realized that she had indeed sounded quite formal for such an intimate setting. She took Aria's face in her hands and stopped her butterfly kisses.

"You are right, that was a bit serious sounding." Vasi said quietly. She leaned in only inches away. "But let me say this seriously and mean every word of it. I love you, Ariarisha. I have for five cyankas."

Aria's laughter, which had been subdued but still present, vanished altogether at this. She pulled Vasi to her and hugged her tightly.

"I have loved you for that long as well." Aria said. "Ever since that moment we killed that cidnak and hobbled out of the preserve together."

Lilavasi nodded in agreement. That was the exact moment that she had fallen in love with Ariarisha as well. They were both too young at the time to realize it but, looking back with an older perspective, they both knew that was where it began.

As they sat there holding each other, both of their stomachs rumbled at the same time. They both fell to the bed laughing and proceeded to plant soft kisses on each other's face for a couple of minutes. Afterwards, Aria sat up and reached for the phone next to the bed.

"Grilled or fried?" Ariarisha asked, referring to their breakfast meats.

"Seared." Vasi said as she sat up as well and leaned her head against Aria's shoulder.

"Only?" Aria asked.

"Yes." Vasi replied.

Ariarisha nodded and called the kitchen. Dizyntk often enjoyed their meats extremely rare, practically raw in fact. The searing was only being done for flavor. This was especially true after having lost blood for any reason. Aria smiled at that thought as she ordered the seared meat. She and Vasi had indeed lost a bit of blood last night, as the stains on the sheets and scent in the air attested. After ordering, Aria lay back down with Vasi and the two of them softly cuddled. They did this for ten minutes before Aria knew she had to get up.

Aria stroked Vasi's hair. "I need to get up and put something on before the servant brings the food."

"Why?" Vasi asked. "It is not as if any of them have not seen you naked before."

Aria laughed at this. "True, but none have seen me with your teeth and claw marks adorning my body."

Vasi smiled and nodded. She had indeed been quite aggressive last night. She sat up and allowed Aria to get off the bed and go to her wardrobe to get a robe to put on. As she did so, Vasi slowly got off the bed herself. Feeling for where she knew the furniture in the room to be, she oriented herself and made her way to the door of the small restroom. After entering, she closed the door and felt around. She smiled as she realized that Aria had even managed to get this room to exactly replicate the one that had been in Vasi's room back on Dizyn; right down to where the soap was.

Aria had looked back as she heard the door to her restroom close. She smiled happily at the fact that her work to make her quarters easy for Vasi to use had paid off. Just as she got her robe tied, there was a soft knock at her bedroom door. She walked over and opened it. Risakala stood there with a cart containing the breakfast Aria had ordered.

"Risa? I did not expect you to bring this for me." Aria said in surprise.

It was not that Aria had a problem with this. Quite the contrary, she loved Risa dearly and almost thought of her as family. She had been a servant in her mother's quarters in the Palace since the very first day they had arrived here five and a half cyankas ago. It was just that Risa was now in charge of all the servants in this part of the Palace, in addition to still being Feyalisa's personal attendant.

"Your mother is out for a while, My Lady." she said with a small bow of her head. "Besides, I could not leave serving you your first breakfast after such an important night to just anyone."

Ariarisha smiled and nodded as she stepped aside to let Risa push the cart into the room. As soon as she was in, Risakala stopped, withdrew a handkerchief from her pocket, wetted it in one of the glasses of water on the tray and turned to Ariarisha.

"Allow me, My Lady." she said as she wiped the tip of Aria's nose.

Aria was too surprised to either say anything or move. Then she saw the light red stain on the cloth as Risakala showed it to her after finishing.

Aria gave a look of mild displeasure and groaned. "Oh perfect. Are there any other obvious signs?"

Risa smiled at her and patted her head gently. "There is no reason for you to concern yourself with such things, Lady Ariarisha. We all know that you turned ten cyankas yesterday."

Aria sighed and nodded. "I suppose so, Risa."

Risa then took a brief sniff of the air. "Besides which, only a very young or very dead dizyntk would not know what this musky scent in your room meant."

Aria growled playfully at Risa. Risa bowed to her and set the food onto the small table in Aria's room.

Lilavasi exited the restroom at this point and, even though she knew that Vasi could not see it, Risakala reflexively bowed her head to her.

"Good morning, Lady Lilavasi." Risa said.

Vasi smiled at the sound of the voice. "Risa!"

She walked carefully to where she had heard Risa's voice and hugged her.

"I have not talked to you since I arrived." Vasi said to Risakala.

"I am happy to see you again as well, My Lady." Risa said. "I am very happy that you will be living here."

Risa stepped back and looked at Vasi. "Will I be tending your wounds, or will Lady Ariarisha be taking care of that?"

Vasi blushed slightly as she realized that she was still completely naked and Risa could see every mark that Aria had made in her. "I would hope that Aria would take care of them."

Risa nodded and looked at Aria with a slight smile. "And here My Lady was worried about any obvious signs of what transpired in here last night."

"Alright, alright, I know it's not something I should be embarrassed about." Aria said defensively.

"No, it is not." Risakala told Aria.

She then took Aria's hand and gently pulled her to Lilavasi. "Now, My Ladies, the two of you eat your meal. I will go and prepare the bath for you. When you two are finished eating, you should go and bathe while I clean you room."

Risa looked at the bed while raising an eyebrow. "And burn the sheets apparently."

Aria and Vasi giggled at that remark. Aria could see that the sheets were indeed a mess. Vasi could not see them of course, but was well aware that they must have a least a few blood stains given her and Aria's activities last night.

Risa smiled at them, walked to the door, turned and bowed. "Very well then, My Ladies, I shall be back in half an hour to clear your dishes and clean the room."

Aria and Vasi both gave a bow of their heads in return. Both laughed a bit after the door closed, then went to the table and began digging into the food. They were both ravenous.

Aria led Vasi to the bath they had been in only the night before. She helped Vasi carefully into the steaming water. The contact of the hot water on the cuts and bite marks on her body caused Lilavasi to take a sharp breath. Aria followed her in and was just able to keep herself from taking a similar breath. Her face did contort a bit from the sharp pain though. The two of them proceeded to gently wash each other off. Although the sting of the soap served to remind them of their wounds, by that point the minor pain was also reminding them of how they had gotten them. After their cleaning was finished they sat next to each other, fingers of one hand each interlaced and simply enjoyed the heat of the water on their bodies.

After several minutes, Lilavasi softly spoke. "I suppose that there is only one thing left for us to do."

Aria smiled at the remark. Without even bothering to open her eyes, she responded. "And we have to wait two cyankas, again, to do it. Does it seem we have to wait two cyankas for something all the time?"

"Yes it does." Vasi said.

Another couple minutes passed. Lilavasi began to think about something she had been considering for some time.

"So tell me, have you been close with any of your other friends?" Vasi asked.

Aria opened her eyes this time and thought about it. Strangely, considering how long the two had been close, they had never talked about this before. "I've kissed three, no, four others besides you, of course. Only one of them more than once. You?"

"You have me beat by one." Vasi admitted. She pouted just a bit as she continued "But none of mine earned a second round."

The two of them laughed at this.

Vasi then asked, "Was the one that earned a repeat performance male or female?"

"A male." Aria responded.

Vasi nodded. "Good."

Aria sat up straight and looked at Vasi. "Why do you say that?"

Vasi continued to lean against the wall of the tub in a relaxed state. "Because even though I love you, Ariarisha, and have every intention of bonding with you, there is one thing that I cannot give you. A thing that as an heir to the throne you must think about."

"Children." Aria stated as she closed her eyes. She had thought about this in private and knew Vasi was right. She did not really want to think about that right now though.