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Desires of Demons

Pt 5: Madness, Sanity, strife

Ch. 1 - Acquaintance

Those first few days were a frightening blur for Erin. Aliens in her home, strange beasts of tooth and claw. One was obviously sick, stuck in a perpetual state of delirium and claimed she was Delilah; the other... A terror that left Erin no peace of mind. For the moment she was tied up in the root cellar, prisoner in her own home. It was her own fault she supposed, she had been free up until the moment she had tried to dial the police.

Three days she had been down here, and in those three days she had eaten only twice. The other one, the cruel one, didn't seem to understand a word she said, nor what she needed. She sat naked, as far away from her own filth as she could, but the whole cellar reeked. Her wrists and ankles were bound with rather expertly tied knots and the nylon rope wasn't going to fray any time this decade. When the sheriff showed up after her attempt to get help, she waved him off with suggestion of missdial. The cruel one had held her, hidden below the window with a knife poised at her belly; never before had she been so frightened.

The door opened and down the creaking steps came that beast. It was huge, at least seven foot and broad as a bull. In fact her features were not unlike a bull's; especially so with her smooth muzzle and flared nostrils. Above her brown eyes a ridge of short horns dotted her brow, but they were loose, not attached to the skull, something like thick scales. Her skin was reddish tan and stretched tight, almost glistening over bunched muscles. Below where her navel should have been was a horizontal fold of flesh, like a kangaroo pouch, then lower Erin could see what was obviously a vulva, though it was very tight and flush to the bone. It was only that cleft between her thighs that suggested female, the demeanor and how she was built was almost like a man.

In truth she was both terrified and attracted to the monster, she was not unlike a demon out of her nightmares, but the power and grace compelled her. She knew what had happened here, in this house nearly twenty five years ago. Blood soaked walls, pieces of half eaten and raped bodies, this monster, he could have done it. Erin's core trembled at the sight of her but she mustered up the voice to say, "What are you going to do with me?" To her relief none of the fear came through in those words.

Oren stood there at the bottom of the stairs, her nose wrinkling at the stench of filth. She reached down and grasped Erin's wrists by the bindings and dragged her to her feet, "Come." She said, not in a language Erin couldn't comprehend but she understood enough to follow. Upstairs Oren dragged the girl to the bathroom and pushed her in, pointed to the shower, then left and shut the door.

Alone again Erin hunted through the bathroom until she found her pinking shears and cut through the bindings on her wrists, then ankles. She didn't know what was intended, but she feared the worst. She tried the door but it wouldn't budge, so she did as expected and washed herself. It had been days since her last shower and it was a luxury she missed greatly. She spent a long while in there, primping preening and making herself feel more human again. Still hunger gnawed at her gut though, and she knocked at the bathroom door to be let out.

For a while there was silence, then she heard the slow heavy footsteps as the monster returned. The door opened and she looked up at the monster, trying to stand tall and proud, but she only came up to her chest, "What are you going to do to me?" She asked, but the monster didn't seem to understand. Instead he just stared at her, silent, with those wide golden-brown eyes taking her in. She could smell something, musky and sexual rising off the beast, then when she glanced down she saw the tip of a penis poking free of that pouch. She stumbled back when it offered a hand to her, palm up. She hesitated, but it made no aggressive move so at last she took it's hand in hers and lead her from the bathroom to her bedroom. Quietly she prayed, "Please don't rape me..."

Her fear peaked as the bedroom door opened, then faded as she looked in to see Delilah sleeping with the strange child at her breast, nursing. The monster sat down on a stool next to the bed and looked up at Erin, then back to Delilah. She reached out and ran a hand tenderly through Delilah's golden hair to rouse the woman. It was strange to think that this inhuman monstrosity before her was once a little human child, but the features were there.

"Momma?" Delilah asked, delirious, and reached out toward Erin and took her hand. That hand so large in comparison, calloused and used to work.

"What did they do to you Delilah?" Erin asked and sat down at the side of the bed.

Oren touched Delilah again and said quietly, "Del... Ermeth yos kain fethe."

Erin asked quietly, while pointing with her free hand toward Delilah, "Del? Delilah?"

Oren glanced up and nodded, "Del." Then looked back to Delilah with obvious affection. Maybe, maybe she wasn't the monster Erin had thought, but her actions were bizarre none the less.

"Erin." She said and pointed to herself, tapped her chest, then repeated, "My name is Erin."

The monster glanced up and said, "Oren." and pointed to herself.

She laughed lightly, "No, I'm Erin." She misunderstood, thinking Oren was trying to say her name, "My name is Erin. It means Eagle."

For a moment Oren was silent, then nodded and said "Erin." with almost perfect mimicry of her northern accent and pointed to her. Then pointed to herself again and said "My name is Oren?" This went on for some time, but eventually they made themselves understood. After which the name of many objects followed, Oren only had to be told the name once and it was memorized, she was a very quick study. By noon the hunger that gnawed at Erin drove her from the... enlightening conversation and she at last convinced Oren to let her leave the room. She was followed closely though and watched as she cooked.

Almost everything was met with a child like attention. Oren stared with eyes wide, absorbing and learning. When she fed her, she at first seemed to dislike the food, but her own hunger eventually drove her to eat. She also brought a plate to Del, but she didn't seem capable of feeding herself, and so Oren carefully cut pieces of egg and fed them to her, one by one. Erin knew there was something wrong with the girl, and it must have been something recent by the way Oren acted. It was like she expected Delilah to just wake up at any moment.

The child made not a sound, though only a week old it seemed so huge, as large as a toddler. It however never left Delilah's side, nursing when the need arose, but the rest of the time just nestled in under an arm with wide eyes watching. Occasionally the child needed changing, and Oren took care of it patiently, some how just knowing, from anywhere in the house. Oren seemed kind, but it was such a strange family all told.

Ch. 2 - Feedback Loop

It was two months after arriving when Del was finally strong enough and whole enough to show any interest in leaving bed. Still his mind was scattered, locked in a constant sexual reminder. Everything that happened, every sensation, every memory eventually looped back to lust; and the longer he stayed this way the more things were associated with sex. He had been this way for over a year and now he couldn't even think long enough to dredge up memories from before.

Just then he looked down to find a small something latched on to his chest, nursing. For a moment he was confused, he didn't recognize it, and in a brief flash of clarity he thought of shadow and wondered how... but there was a connection, a deep unconscious link that told him this was not the same child. But then it was gone, the sensation of nursing, the tug at his nipple and the rush of milk in to the child's mouth... sudden sexual impulse took over rational thought and he was lost again for hours or days.

The next period of rational thought, Del found himself sitting outside, shading himself under poplar trees from the hot yellow sun. A dream he was sure, as a child he had sat under poplars and listened to them clap in the breeze; this was but a pleasant memory. Off to the side he heard a sigh as Oren bent and pulled cloth from a basket and hung it up to dry. Del smiled and said softly, "Oren..." His meru's head turned quickly and wide loving eyes cast their gaze upon him, and in those eyes he lost himself again. Memories of those eyes and that mouth, memories of pleasure. The loop rejoined Del began to stroke himself helplessly while those eyes burned themselves in to his memories.

Another bout of awareness came to him as he lay, basking in the glow of an orgasm. Oren was atop of him, still licking his length clean. Her stomach bulged around an obvious pregnancy and Del wondered aloud, "Is that mine, Oren?"

"Del?" Oren asked, looked up, then followed his gaze back to her own protruding stomach, "Yes it is my love." She told him, then resumed her bathing.

Pride, joy, wonder, then lust again, lust so powerful it wiped every thought from his mind. The little touches, the sensation of Oren's mouth, it started all over again and Del was helpless to resist. "No!" He cried moments before his body arched and he began to grind himself up against his meru, helpless.

Hours later Oren sat with Erin, watching the news. She understood little of human society, but what she knew she had learned through that device after learning Erin's language. With a pitiful sigh, Oren glanced to the human, "He slips farther and farther from me every week. This morning was the first time in months he even knew my name and it only lasted for seconds."

Erin looked back sadly, but she really didn't know how to help, "Maybe a doctor might be able to do something? It sounds like some sort of neurological condition."

"And what would happen if a doctor even saw him?" Oren snapped, then fell back defeated, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I can empathize with you." She replied then glanced back to the news.

It was a long year before Del found coherency once more. This time he was alone, the house quiet. Once more it was post orgasm, though he found himself masturbating while curled up in a corner behind the couch. He rose to his feet and looked around, recognizing the house but it felt so alien. At least for the moment he was clear headed and calm but there was an edge of fire burning all around his mind, one missed step and he would be lost again.

It was a mental tightrope, walking each thought through, careful not to let it lead to something that might spill back in to chaos. The house was tidy and maintained though much older than he remembered from childhood. The plastered walls were cracked, mended, and repainted many times since. The thick logs that made up the structure were blackened with soot and tar. He recalled them being aged elm logs, brownish tan. Everything was similar but subtly out of place with his memories.

There was also something else, a deep throbbing presence. It reminded him of something he couldn't quite remember, something magical. With that thought he reached out and felt the power in the air, the energy all around him. His vision blurred then flared, nearly blinding him. Everything glowed with an inner light so radiant he couldn't look at it. Everything hummed vibrated and churned with energy. Outside he could see the multitude of trees, each with a circuit of potency flowing from the air and ground in a strange dance. But it was all so much, too much, for most of his life everything had been dead and drained, only the dull energy of the people and the radiance of his other half had been there... Here, where everything was vibrant, it drowned the senses.

He fell to his knees with a scream, hands to his eyes, trying to block the radiance from his inner eye, but nothing could come between it and him. Now that he knew to look, his inner eye open, he couldn't again shut it. With his last moment of sanity he fled from the vision in to the inner fire, and cast himself in to the endless cycles. It was the last moment of sanity he would taste for many years. When Oren finally reached the house and found Del crying in the middle of the floor, it was already too late, the clarity was gone.

Ch. 3 - Seeker

It was shortly after new year and Erin was fixing dinner. Some how she had grown accustomed to her new life. She couldn't send the strange folk away, nor could she get help from anyone. For over two years Oren and Del had lived under her roof, eating her food, and using her money. It wasn't all one sided to be sure, Oren was a hard worker and kind; but it was a very strange life none the less. They grew most of their own food, burned wood for heat and much of the cooking. They were partially self sufficient, what was left was taken care of by her husband's pay.

It had been three years since she had seen her husband, another year at minimum before he would return home. He had promised to come back for Christmas but in a panic she had convinced him not to. Not that he would have made it anyway, tensions were high in the middle east and he was called away, canceling leave before it was granted. She knew things were tense, the news was full of peace talks, military buildups and what have you.

Oren called to her from the main room and she followed, bringing the soup pot and a tableware with her, "What is it?" She asked.

"Your president is talking, something about an operation in the desert." Oren replied, still trying to make sense of the English language.

"Just two hours ago, allied air forces began an attack on military attacks in Iraq and Kuwait."

Erin glanced to the TV and listened a moment, then swore, "Well that's it then, we are at war."

"War?" Oren asked, then glanced back to listen. Eventually it switched to other talking heads discussing forces and strategies, "I've never warred before, what should I do?" At home she would have taken a knife and guarded the children in the safest place she could find while the Djheni defended the city. In fact she had done just that once, protecting Rachel all those years ago when they had been attacked.

Quizzically Erin glanced to Oren, "Do? Nothing I suppose. This isn't like the world wars where there was rationing and women had to join the work force en mass. It's almost entirely mechanized now, only a few hundred thousand troops on the ground." She sighed and sat down at the table, staring in to the steaming soup pot, appetite lost, "I wonder where Mark is."

Oren stared slack jawed at her for a moment, then echoed, "few hundred thousand?" then added after a moment, "Mark?"

Erin rose and pulled a framed photograph off the fireplace mantle and held it out, "My husband... My Djheni, Mark. He's a marine, serving on one of those ships they mentioned or maybe in Qatar, I don't know, they won't tell me." Oren took the photo and gazed at the tall human in a black suit along side Erin all in white, "We were only married a few year before he got it in his head that he wanted to join the military."

"I don't think I understand your ways, I don't think I ever will." Oren said after a moment and handed the frame back, "So many warriors... Soldiers."

She shrugged the picture was placed back where it belonged, then sat down once more to eat, "Come, before it gets cold. Oh and yes, hundreds of thousands. They won't give out an exact number until after the fighting has stopped, but all told its probably close to a million."

Oren shuddered a little, "So many willing to die..." She muttered then came to the table and sat down, "Largest engagement I've heard of was no more than five thousand from Emorre, even a few meru joined the fight as Djheni." She paused, then prompted, "Why are we going to war?"

Erin shrugged, she knew little of the middle east and its history, or why we might be involved, "Oil I guess. That's why the Iraqis invaded Kuwait in the first place."

For weeks Oren paid rapt attention to the news, drinking in every discussion of battle, tactics and tradition. She had never shown much interest in war, but the way humans waged it fascinated her and the reasons behind the war were shrouded in a strange mist. One morning Erin found her in the middle of the kitchen with one of her bed sheets, cutting it to pieces and stitching it back together. She was so focused she didn't even notice Erin enter.

"What are you doing Oren?" Erin demanded, "That is one of my best sheets!"

The meru glanced up, startled, and pricked a finger with the needle. For a moment she sucked blood from her finger tip, then with a smile responded, "I want to go out, I need clothing. I saw the clothing those Afghan women wore covering their full bodies."

"They do that for religious purposes, you will be mistaken for a Muslim." Erin said, exasperated.

Oren just smiled, shrugged, and told her, "And they will not question it!"

"I've never even seen a Muslim in town here before, its not a very large place you know. People will wonder where you are from, why you are here." She paused then huffed and pointed a finger at the meru, "And any way, you hate it outside, why would you want to go out?"

"Well, yes, it is rather uncomfortable, everything rotting and growing. I'm always afraid grass will start growing on my shins if I stand in it too long. But I heard there was a library and I want to know more!" Oren proclaimed, then shook out the cloth she was working on. It was rather odd looking, a white chadri with tiny blue flowers, but it was well made, "Now I must dye it!" She wadded the clothing up then dipped it in to the sink, a basin of water and something blue.

"Oren, how did you make the dye?" Erin asked, but suspected already, "And when did you learn to read?"

"I found it on your writing desk. As for reading, I'm not perfect yet, but it is not a particularly difficult language and children's programming is quite useful." She replied, unconcerned.

"You used my very, very expensive calligraphy ink?!" Erin cried, then sank against the door frame and sighed, "Why didn't I call the police when I had the chance? My life would be so much simpler now." She muttered and caught Oren's amused gaze, "What?"

"You were lonely." She replied simply, then continued kneading the fabric in to the ink.

Erin's head hung and she nodded, "Yeah, yeah I suppose that's true. Though you did lock me in the basement for three days after I tried."

"Err... yes, forgive me. I was under a lot of stress, you know? It isn't every day that you get transported to another planet with no help or friend, in the middle of an emergency." Oren said with a sidelong glance.

It worked, the chadri hid Oren well, though she was still exceedingly tall for a human, let alone a woman, but she learned to walk at a stoop and got herself down to around six foot comfortably. Erin protested the whole time, even as she drove them both in to town. At last they parked in the lot of the library and they walked together in to the small building. As far as libraries went, it was just a small town one, only two librarians and no more than a couple thousand books.

The librarian, April, looked up and smiled to Erin, but gave a queer look toward the strangely clothed other, "Erin, where have you been? I rarely see you in town these days and who is this?" Her smile was friendly, but there was an air of guarded curiosity and bigotry about her.

"I've been busy..." Erin stopped, considering what to say, then continued, "This is Oren, I've been looking after her and another who is rather sick. But Oren is very curious, I was hoping we could set up a library card for her so she can further her study. Shes just beginning to learn English."

"Oh of course! How wonderful." April exclaimed and clapped her hands together, "It is a pleasure to meet you Oren, where are you from?"

Pretending to misunderstand, Oren replied, "Erin's home." In the best arabic accent as she could muster. Not that April would have been able to tell the difference.

Every other day or so Oren would go in to town to the library. Some days she would walk the five miles in to town, others Erin would go with. She became a familiar sight but rarely answered questions about home, only alluding to something horrible. Much of what she said was true of course, Del was sick, it was at the hand of another, there were abuses and violations. But she could tell no one the truth, even Erin didn't dig too deep; scared by the little she knew.

A month in, the sheriff at last took note and confronted Oren as she was walking in to town. His car slowed to a crawl and followed along side as Oren walked, "Hey, You're Oren right?" He shouted out an open window.

She stopped and turned to him, then nodded, "Yes Sir." She had been well briefed about the antics of police enforcement. There was nothing like it back home, the closest you might get is a gate guard, but that was closer to a military than police.

"Why don't you hop in, I'll drive you the rest of the way in to town. I've been meaning to talk to you anyway, I like to know everyone in the area you know." He came to a complete stop and opened the passenger side door. She hesitated, staring at him, then crossed the street around his car and sat down, "I'm not going to cause you trouble, scout's honor. My name's Zach Meyer, You have been nothing but polite since you came in to town and from what folks tell me, you got out of some serious trouble somewhere. Do you have an Ex husband I need to watch out for?"

With the door shut he began to drive again, albeit still rather slow, "No Ex, sir, but yes I escaped some serious trouble not long ago. Erin thankfully was there to put me up. She has been overly kind to us."

"Us?" He prompted.

"My... My sister, her son, and I." Oren answered.

"I hate to ask, but do you have any form of Identification on you? It's hard to tell who you are under that garb and all." Zach asked, his voice all business.

She stiffened then shook her head, "Only my library card, why?"

"Well, I was curious, so I looked up your name, Oren Re'o Emorre. Couldn't find anything anywhere." He told her as he brought the car to a stop, in front of the library.

"Emorre is a byname, sir, its where I'm from." She paused, then added, "I thought you weren't intending to cause me trouble."

"I'm not." He replied flatly, then pointed out the window, "We're here." After a short pause he continued, "I like Erin and Mark, they are good people. I would just hate to see them in trouble. It's my job you know, to make sure everyone is safe."

She opened the door and stepped out, then replied to him, quietly, "I understand sir. I will cause no trouble, I promise. When my sister is well again we will be leaving"

"Hey now, I'm not trying to chase you out of town. I'm just concerned. How about I drop by later to meet your sister, could give you a lift home." He said it with kindness, but it sent stark terror to Oren's core. She simply bowed her head to him, then fled as slowly and calmly as she could in to the library and hid herself in the books for the rest of the day.

That night she made her way home avoiding the road. It was difficult and she tore her clothing on branches twice, but nothing she couldn't mend. When she arrived however the sheriff's truck was parked in the drive and lights were on inside the house. By now Erin should have been asleep. With trepidation she opened the front door to find Zach and Erin sitting at the kitchen table with steaming mugs of coffee.

"So, went out of your way to avoid me, I see." Zach said as he cast an eye on Oren's mussed clothing, "Erin doesn't want me to disturb your sister either, or the kid."

Erin said sharply, "Oh hell Zach, why do you have to be so nosy? Can't you see shes scared witless?"

"No, not really, can't see her expression through that hood. Anyhow I promised Mark I'd check in on you once in a while, but for the past couple years you've been practically a recluse." The sheriff said righteously and stared down his nose at Erin.

Oren made her way to the table and sat down, tired, "I'm sorry Sir. I will take my... Sister and son away from here first thing tomorrow morning."

Zach struck the table with the flat of his hand and stared hard at Oren, "Look here, I told you before, I'm not trying to chase you off, but there is something fishy going on."

"She's done nothing wrong Zach, neither have I. So unless you have something more, just get the hell out." Scolded Erin as she planted her feet with hands on hips and glared.

The room was silent for a while, then slowly the sheriff's chair slid back and he stood, "Alright, I'm sorry Erin. You know I'm just looking out for you, don't want you to get in with the wrong kind of crowd."

Even angrier, Erin shouted, "And what kind of crowd would that be? Just what the hell is going through your head?"

"Well now, I don't know, since I have no idea who these people are." Zach replied offhandedly, then made his way past Oren and stopped, staring at a rent in her clothing over her shoulder. The reddish gold skin shining through quite readily against the deep blue, "Or what they are."

At that Oren put her hand to the door and held it shut, even as Zach tried to open it. She was far stronger than him, and taller by quite a bit. She stood to her full height and stared down at the man, silent for a while as he struggled at the door, "You want to know who and what I am? Really?"

He looked up at her, realizing just how much larger Oren was, she always seemed so unassuming and diminutive before, "Er, yeah." He muttered.

"My name as I told you, is Oren Re'o Emorre, meru to the Djheni Del Re'o Nora, foster to Knaira Re'o Emorre." As Oren spoke, she reached down and dragged the damaged clothing off her body, exposing her naked form to the male. She was truly inhuman and she saw it in his eyes, saw the fear and confusion, "So who are you going to protect? Who are you trying to care for? Spiteful and bigoted little man that you are."

"What are you?" He breathed and leaned back against the door, away from Oren's imposing form.

"I just told you, Del's Meru, his wife you could say." Oren snapped back.

Erin laid a small hand on Oren's bicep and pulled lightly. Behind them stood the child, staring wide eyed at the commotion, and behind him was Del with a glazed expression, holding his child's hand, "Mothers?" the child asked, staring directly at Oren and Erin.

"Come here kiddo." Erin said, the only one not stunned, the boy had never before spoken but Erin had always figured he would eventually.

He shuffled over, letting go of Del's hand, then pressed himself to Erin's side and peered up at Zach. Oren reached down and laid her hand on the boy's crown, "I'm sorry son, did we wake you?" He shook his head no, "Del?" she prompted and to that he nodded. Behind them Del had lost interest and wandered back in to the bedroom, leaving the door open.

Zach sidled around Oren's hulking form and sat back down at the table, then downed what was left of his coffee. He looked stunned but eventually the glassy eyed stare focused again and landed on Erin, "What is going on here?"

Erin gently guided the boy to the couch and laid with him, his head in her lap; he just stared at Zach in silence. Erin however spoke, "You told me when we moved in about the massacre, right?" At his nod she continued, "Well, apparently most survived and were kidnapped. Two years ago Delilah found her way back here... but she was changed. I don't understand how or why, but shes no longer fully human and her mind is damaged." Oren told more of the story, about Rachel and herself, the kidnapping, and eventual escape. There were many parts she left out, but she gave him enough of the picture.

"So... You're Delilah's wife?" Zach asked and peered queerly at Oren, who nodded, "So..." Zach started, then trailed off, staring about the room. The boy was asleep now, strange and very inhuman, Erin was calm and content with him in her lap. Oren still seemed tense, her eyes never leaving Zach. At last he said, "What now?"

Oren was silent for a long while, still staring. Then at last with a shake to her head she told him, "To be honest, that is up to you. But I will protect Del no matter what, he is everything to me."

With a curious cant of his head, Zach asked, "Why do you call her a him, or husband for that matter?"

Oren's face broke in to an amused grimace, "Well, you see, I don't call him husband, I call him Djheni. As for pronouns, english is difficult to express proper concepts in. It's complicated." She thought for a moment longer, then said at last, "Del is the warrior and the father. To me at the least. To others he may be meru and the mother. It is the role he takes in his path that determines what he is. We as a species are not divided as you humans are."

"But she was human, and female. She gave birth to that child over there, right?" Zach prompted with a frown.

Oren paused for a moment, considering, "You are a sheriff, a protector, warrior and leader. In our culture you would be Djheni. But should you be a female instead of a male, you would still be Djheni. Even if you had a child, your path is of the warrior. Del is a mage, smith, and warrior. Even now, laid low as he is, his path is still the same and when he recovers I will be his meru still." As she finished a trickle of tears rained down her face and she looked away from the man.

"I see." He said but felt he had barely scratched the surface.

Ch. 4 - Control

The war was over, everything had resolved quietly and quickly. Eventually Mark was granted leave, he would be home before the end of the year; hopefully for Christmas. Erin was in a frenzy, trapped somewhere between freak out and excited joy. She didn't know how to break the current situation to him, but she realized it was necessary. Somewhere deep in the back of her mind, she knew she owed nothing to them, but they had become family in a way.

The child seemed amused, watching the frantic antics of his family as they fussed. Even Oren was distressed, pacing back and forth with a hand over her stomach, deep in thought. The boy followed the pace, as if it were a game, though his face showed deep concentration. The letter had arrived only a day before Mark was due to arrive, military mail could be exceedingly slow.

"We could leave, we have intruded upon your home long enough." Oren said suddenly as she came to a stop.

"Nonsense!" Erin replied while sorting through some papers.

"Why? Del is not your Djheni, we are just guests in your home." Oren said while peering at the woman intently.

Erin went silent for a moment and looked back, meeting the other's eyes. At last she pointed out, "I don't know about where you are from, but here, on this world, strangeness does not happen every day. You are an alien, from another world, from another culture. You talk of things that I have not dreamed of, you think in ways I've never before thought. Maybe its just simple curiosity, but I don't want you to go. And anyhow, I happen to like you." Then she glanced down toward the boy and smiled, "And you too."

The child nodded and hopped over to Erin's side and put his head upon her hip, "I love you too mommy." He said.

"See?" Erin said with a little smile up at Oren, "I'm family. Mark will come around though he may be a bit confused at first. But I know him, I married him after all." She pursed her lips thoughtfully as her eyes watched Oren, "You know, you are more the Djheni of the house now anyway."

Oren growled at that and turned away to continue pacing, "Not by choice." She said as she absently folded her arms over her stomach, "I've tried, almost every day but Del's seed will not quicken within me. Our... captor bred me once before we escaped, so I know I can." She sighed helplessly and looked down at Erin again, "Do you mean you want me to be your Djheni?" She asked after a while.

Erin's blush said all that needed to be said, but she shook her head and replied, "No... I have a husband who is going to be here tomorrow after all." Her eyes however wouldn't meet Oren's.

The child after a moment spoke up in one of his exceedingly rare interjections, "I'm Djheni." It broke the tension and both women started to laugh, even more so as the boy's frown creased his scaled brow. After a moment he hopped up and left the room in a huff.

The next day Oren took Del and their son away, out in to the forest for a picnic. The truth was she wanted to give Erin and Mark some time alone before breaking his mind with this new reality. Out in the wilderness Oren tried to relax, but she never could grow accustomed to the rotting stench of this world. Even deep in winter as it was she could feel the decaying life below the snow. So she sat upon a large bolder and watched Del, keeping him out of trouble while their son explored a near by tree.

She was nervous, not just from the mucky world around her, but she worried about how it was going back at the house. Erin said she would tell Mark some of it before they were due back at nightfall. Housemates she said, which was as close to the truth as she was willing to go without backup. Zach said he would stop by about the same time as well, to make sure things were going well and to welcome Mark back.

The hours passed painfully slow. The boy took a nap for a while, then returned to romping through the snow. Del had to be coaxed back after he got it in his head to hunt a squirrel and nearly broke his neck chasing it up a tree. He lost interest half way up and forgot how to get back down. By the time the sun dipped to the horizon, Oren was exhausted and lead the others back to the house. She wasn't sure she wanted to face what was coming, but she trudged forward anyhow.

Zach was already there when they arrived, his vehicle parked in the drive. Outside Oren stood, listening to the house, she could hear laughter through the closed door. With trepidation she reached out and opened the door inward. Before her Mark and Erin were on the couch and Zach was sitting backward in one of the dining room chairs. Erin looked up, her face drawn with a mark of worry, but she seemed calm enough. Zach glanced back and nodded to Oren.

"Mark, this is Oren, the one I mentioned..." Erin started, then trailed off at the unreadable expression on Mark's face.

"Hello Mark." Oren said softly as she stepped in. The man was large for a human and very tanned after a year in the desert. He rose to his feet with clenched eyes focused on the strange appearance of the naked, inhuman creature that stood in his house.

"How the hell did you get here?" He demanded sharply. It wasn't confusion, it wasn't fear, it wasn't even curiosity. He seemed offended.

Bewildered, Oren asked "What do you mean?"

"I thought we took out the last of your kind in Kuwait." Mark snarled while advancing with fists bunched at his hips.

"What?" She cried, and backed up against the wall, "There are other Djheni here?"

"Mark!" Erin cried and grabbed her husband by the arm, trying to drag him back. Zach had stood up and made to stand between him and Oren as well.

Another head poked up between Zach and Mark, the boy stood, staring at him angrily with hands on hips. He was nearly up to Mark's chin, though still diminutive compared to the well built human, but still with his black scales and broad shape there was a strange imposing nature to him. Mark stopped and looked down at the boy, those golden determined eyes glaring back up. He paused, tried to say something, stopped, then stood there slack jawed for a moment. Then he relaxed and returned to the couch, "I'm sorry... I just..." Mark mumbled then went silent.

There was a bewildered silence after that. The boy took Del by the hand and lead him to the backroom, then after a yawn he shut the door. There was a strange finality about it and no one had any urge to follow. A sudden thought popped in to Oren's head and he muttered quietly, "Djheni indeed."

Erin cocked her head at that but said nothing while Zach looked on in confusion, "What just happened?" He said at last, to which Oren only shrugged.

Mark however spoke up again, "There was something going on down there, I don't think the Djheni were tied to the Iraqis or Kuwaiti forces, but the brass knew about them and sent us in to clean up. Supposed to be highly classified, but since you're here..." He trailed off again and glanced up at Oren, "You really don't know anything about it?"

With a shake of her head, Oren told him, "I'm just smith trained meru, born on the streets of Emorre. We have a sort of feudal society so if one city is doing something, the others might not be aware of it at all. And even if the Liege of Emorre knew, he wouldn't tell his merusei."

"So, from what I gather... The larger one was your husband, who is ill. The smaller one is your son?" Mark prompted.

"Well, technically hes Del's son, sired by an Achera before we left. But yes." Oren replied as she took a seat across from Zach.

Mark looked about amongst the people for a while, then hung his head and shook it, "I guess you can stay."

Ch. 5 - Change

Mark took a longer leave of absence, citing mental troubles. But the truth of the matter was he had trouble coping at home. It wasn't Oren or Erin, or even Del. It was Del's son, he held Mark in a strange thrall which everyone but Mark could see. In fact the boy had started to push himself to the center of the family. He was also growing larger, so large in fact that he could see eye to eye with Oren even though he wasn't even in his teens yet.

The trouble came to a head one late spring evening when Oren came home from the library. Erin and Mark were out shopping, but the house was far from quiet. Even before she opened the door she heard a sobbing moan through an open window. She followed the noise to the back bedroom and opened it to find the boy upon Del, panting in post coital bliss. At first she didn't know what to say or even think as she watched his swollen red phallus slide free of his mother. It was coated in blood and cum, barbs of an achera present. Oren had never seen his penis before, never realized just how much achera was in him. Del on the other hand was writhing back and forth, gasping and whining as she clutched at her belly.

"What did you do?" Oren asked.

He looked up and smiled at Oren, "My meru wanted it, she always wants it."

"Yes but shes sick, she doesn't know any better." Then she stopped and took a step forward, "Your meru? She is not your meru! She is your mother and a proud Djheni."

With a frown the boy slid out from between Del's thighs, his penis still erect with barbs flexing, "She only thinks in the place of a meru. She has no pride, I am Djheni." He spoke with pride and fierceness in his voice and took a step towards Oren.

"No!" Oren yelled and took her own step forward, "Del is my Djheni. She is just sick, she can get better, I know it." She took a moment to calm herself, then said softly, "Omo cleared her mind for a time before we left; if I had even a touch of the chantry I would have attempted to do something myself."

His hand came to her face, sticky with the mess of mating. She could smell his semen, reminding her of the Achera she had known years ago. The scent of him brought with it a hint of the fire but she pulled away, quelling those lines of thought, "I am not yours either."

He withdrew his hand and she was assaulted suddenly by a strange alien sense of anger. It wasn't her, but she felt it none the less. For only a moment she felt her will weaken and she took a step forward, towards the child but she stopped herself with a snarl. She fed upon that alien emotion and used it to regain control, "Stop it!" She screamed as hands came to her head, squeezing at her temples. She recognized the texture of him, the subtle undercurrent that ruled her life. In that moment of clarity she realized he had always been there, since he was born, carefully reaching in to her and twisting her.

At her scream he stepped back and said, quietly, "Forgive me Mother..." But he couldn't block out the feeling of her horror and humiliation. She felt violated and used, filthy, and it was his fault. Without another word he fled in to the twilight, away from her disgust.

Carefully Oren cleaned and mended Del. It was obvious the boy's awakening was recent, but there was sign of multiple rapes, some scars at least a month old. She had to physically restrain her Djheni just to treat the wounds but she couldn't tell if the reaction was pain or lust. When Erin returned, Oren felt too ashamed to tell her about what the boy had done.

That night he didn't return, nor the next day. On the third however he arrived looking hungry and haggard. His eyes never met Oren's but she could feel his hurt and confused emotions leaking out across her own. They called to her and she wanted to forgive him, to sooth his hurt, but a part of her resented it and realized she was being manipulated as she stood there.

-

Erin woke late at night some weeks later, with the moon shining in through her window. At her side she felt Mark stirring, rising, then his hand upon her mouth. Confused and still shaking the wisps of sleep from her mind, she struggled to move away but his body slid atop of her and held her in place. The bedroom door opened and she heard the click of claws as _he_entered the room. She could feel it was him, strange to say, she could sense a change, a shifting in their relationship. For a moment she even forgot about Mark holding her as she focused on that inner landscape.

Mark stood, silent and watching, his back to the wall. Her covers had fallen away in the struggle and she wore only a loose shift to bed.He looked down on her with golden eyes that reflecting dimly the moon. His touch upon her cheek sent a shiver through her body, fear mixed with a strange trembling hunger. He had learned from Del's mind and he pushed in to Erin's thoughts, afixing the right points. Suddenly she was like a spring bud opening to the sun; to him.

The bed groaned as he climbed atop of her, his body a heavy firmness, so unlike Mark. His scales were smooth and slick against her naked skin, and his eyes looked in to her deeper than anyone had ever before. Before him she was naked in a sense more true than she could have dreamed. Years of familiarity and constant connection left her most secret truths bare before him. She didn't fear though as he touched her childlike core, he was so gentle, so kind to her every thought. Dreams, fantasies, fears, and secrets paraded before him; each touched, treasured, and released again. Thought after thought drifted through her mind, brought willingly as sacrifice to his hungering gaze. Once she might have been unwilling, but not anymore, not now in this moment as he held her mind in an iron grip.

At last he found what he was looking for and he twisted. She moaned, suddenly desperate and unaware of what he was doing to her. Another twist and her thighs parted, lifted, and begged for him. Another twist and she was his, "Master..." She breathed, then leaned up to kiss him upon his wide muzzle. In that kiss she felt his own arousal peak and his vent spread open. His sticky, filthy length emerged and smeared a yellow trail across her thigh. She could feel the hard barbs, laying flat to his flesh, but she did not fear. When he penetrated her, she felt it through him and herself, as one flesh coming together. There was a moment of rapture, a feedback loop sending them both to their peaks. His phallus; buried as far as it would go, throbbed and swelled suddenly. His barbs were forced flat, careful not to damage his new meru. With as much human in him as there was, his hips bucked and he mated her hard, much unlike an achera.

All while under Mark's careful watch, he felt no jealousy nor anger. In fact he was joyful just be there as the two he loved come together. He stood there, erection proud and hungry, but he did nothing to interrupt or distract his Master or the meru. Only a few minutes passed before the hybrid released his seed in to Erin and Mark nearly came himself as he watched. His heart swelled in abject devotion to what he felt was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was dawn before Mark was allowed back in to bed to sleep in late.

Ch. 6 - Momentum

Del woke suddenly. His head hurt something fierce and he felt incredibly hot. He sat up and laid his head in his hands, trying to clear sleep from it. The sun was high in the sky and he was laying out in a forest, a familiar forest. A glance around told him he was back where it had all began so many years before. There was the stone on which his innocence had been lost, there were the familiar trees. He didn't know how he had gotten here, only that he was. After a while his head seemed to clear and he stood up. He was naked and for a moment he was the little girl again, chaste and shy, but it passed as he recalled his years without shame among the Djheni people.

The house he found was vaguely familiar, not just in that it was his childhood home, but that even with the changes, modern appliances and repainting; he knew it. Inside was quiet, there was a note on a kitchen table, hand written in a haste. Del reached for it and read with a frown.

Dear Oren,

Forgive me for what I did, it's my fault Del never came back. I just didn't realize it. Erin, Mark and I are leaving, but before we go I am going to set things right. Erin is talking to Zach and they are putting the house in Delilah's name, you two can stay as long as you need.

Don't look for us.

Master Re'o Del

Del stared at the short note, confused; the only name he recognized was Oren. For a while he sat and listened to the slow tick of a clock, then hunger dragged him to the kitchen and he fixed himself something from the fridge. If the house was in his name, they wouldn't begrudge him a meal. At last, some time after dark the door opened and in came some one, covered head to toe in the silliest blue gown Del had ever seen.

Oren looked about and saw Del sitting at the table with a plate and crumbs, just sort of staring. There was a strange quality to that stare, unlike she was used to. It took her a few moments to realize what it meant, "Del?" She asked, almost afraid she might shake him loose again.

"Oren?" He asked with a frown, "What are you wearing?"

"Oh! Its a chadri, something muslim women in Afghanistan wear. Makes a great disguise don't you think?" She replied and pulled the thing off to show herself, "Del... is it really you? Are you going to go away again?" She asked, her eyes close to tearing up and her voice tight.

He rose and brought her in to his arms, tight and warm, "Yes its me, who else would it be and where would I go?"

They talked late in to the night but Oren was rather closed on what the note meant and who 'Master' was, though she did tell him some, she didn't go in to what he had done with her mind, she still felt humiliated by her own weakness. She told him of his imprisonment and their eventually escape, of Omo and his assistance. She also told him of Erin and her kindness over the past seven years. The leaving however was a surprise, a rather uncomfortable one at that. Though she had never truly made peace with the child, she still cared for him. Losing Erin on the other hand hurt her deeply, she was, after a fashion, in love with the human and the feeling had been mutual as far as she was aware. That morning as the sun rose conversation fell away and was replaced by slow and luxurious love making, as a proper meru and Djheni. It had been so long for Oren, so long since his touch, his kindness.

They woke well past noon to knocking, Zach coming by to check in. Introductions made Oren went off to fix breakfast. Del had never really met Zach before, but he seemed nice enough. Once the meal was served Oren asked, "Zach, how did Erin seem when you last saw her?"

The sheriff dipped his head in a bit of a shrug, "Nothing unusual, perhaps a bit preoccupied? I asked her what it was all about, but she didn't seem inclined to discuss it. You had no inkling of her intentions?"

"None, everything seem fine. Del's son wrote us a note, but that was it." She slid the paper over to him while Del ate quietly and watched.

He felt rather out of sorts, disconnected perhaps; like he didn't belong in this world. Perhaps that was true, he wasn't human, Djheni, or even Achera. After a while he asked, "I remember so many people from when I was a kid, are any of them still around?"

Zach shook his head, "Not many I'm afraid. I think Jess Willard was around back then but that was before my time. Town pretty much dried up after that."

"Jess..." Del started, then trailed off for a moment, "Jessica, daughter of Rachel."

Oren's jaw hung open for a moment, "Rachel, that Rachel?" she squeaked out.

Zach nodded, "Thats the one, Rachel Willard vanished with the rest of you, didn't she?"

Del and Oren's eyes met, then he glanced back to the sheriff, "I need to speak with Jessica. Don't suppose you would be willing to make the reintroduction?"

"You know what happened to Rachel?" He prompted.

"Yeah..." Del sighed.

Ch. 7 - Echos

Jess felt old. She would be forty next month, forty, older than her mother when... She didn't continue that train of thought and instead screamed out the window above the sink, "Lily! For the last time get your ass in here and wash up, I've got dinner ready!"

A few moments later a mud stained girl tromped in to the room, tracking dirt all over the floor. It had rained the night before and she had gone out to one of the field ponds to search for tadpoles. In her hand was a heavy mason jar, filled with murky green water, "Mommy! Look." She said and held the jar up, inside black tree frog tadpoles squirmed about, looking quite upset at their confinement.

"Fuck Lily, I told you not to bring any back, only look. Whatever, go wash up." Jessica said sharply as she took a drag on her cigarette, then grabbed the provided jar. Once the girl was in the bathroom, she opened the lid and poured the contents down the drain. Then she quickly washed her hands, scrubbing muck from them with a cringe.

When Lily returned the girl asked, "Hey, where'd my tadpoles go?"

"They ran away while you were busy, go sit down." Jess said dismissively.

Yeah, she felt old, and even more so trying to look after an eight year old. Dinner was already cold by the time she sat down, not that it was anything spectacular, she didn't have her mother's flare for cooking. Lily ate hungrily none the less and asked for more. She was a thin girl, wiry and excitable, the school said she had ADHD and Jess was inclined to agree. While she served out Lily's second helping, there was a knock at the door, Before she could say anything, Lily jumped up and shouted, "I'll get it!"

Jess sighed as she heard the door open, then came to her feet when Lily yelped. There was a quiet scuffle and she ran to the front, before her was some one dressed head to toe in white, face hidden behind a veil. Their hands were hidden in gloves, one of which was on Lily's shoulder, holding her.

"Careful there, don't want to fall down. Now is your mother home?" The voice was soft, almost feminine, but with a powerful and confident lit to it. Eyes rose under that veil, and she swore there was something strange about them.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" Jess asked, then added, "Wait, are you Oren? I heard talk of some folks moving in to the area who were dressed strangely."

"No, no, Oren is my wife. My name is Del... Delilah." Del said, then quickly corrected. He barely recognized the woman who stood before him. She had gained weight, a lot of weight and her face was creased in a perpetual scowl. Worse though were those eyes, once they were doe eyes, soft and kind, very much like Rachel's, but now they were weary and distrustful. Last Del had seen her, she was fifteen or sixteen, "I don't know if you remember me... I lived a bout a mile down the road a little over twenty years ago."

That scowl deepened and her eyes turned hard, "Is this some kind of joke? You fuckers playing a prank on me after you learned about the house?" Jess practically screamed, then jerked her thumb back, "Lily, get the fuck back to the table and finish your dinner. As for you, who ever the fuck you are, get off my property before I call the sheriff."

For a moment Del was stunned. Things had changed, sure, but he never imagined that one of his childhood friends would become... He shook his head and took another step forward. Lily did as her mother bid, scampering out of the way and in to the dining room. However Del could see an eye peeking around the corner, watching, "I'm not playing a prank, it's really me. We used to play house out back in the tree, you told me about your crush in school."

"I said get out!" Jess screamed, her mind whirling with a mixture of fear, pain, rage, and even some hope.

Del's head fell and he turned back toward the door. He paused at it, then said quietly, "I just wanted to tell you about Rachel."

Hope flared, a tiny spark scattering the shadows in her heart. After a moment of silence, Jess said, "Okay..." her voice was soft now, almost like when she had been a teenager, but very very scared.

Del turned back and looked her in the eye, "If I could go back and prevent what happened, I would. I tried that day, so hard, to make her turn back, to go home, but she wouldn't listen. She was captured along with everyone else when we were taken. But eventually when I became an adult, I won her freedom, she was happy, we were happy." Del trailed off as his voice became tight.

Jess simply latched on to a single word, "Was?"

"Y... Yeah." Continued Del, "Our home was raided while I was out of town, she and Oren were taken prisoner. I tried to rescue her, believe me I tried, but I was too late. They did something to her, when I found her again, there... Never mind. She died in my arms Jessica, I tried, I'm sorry. I loved her so much."

Jess's heart was a mixture of fury and bewildered pain as she sputtered, "Loved her? What do you mean loved her. I loved her, her daughter, what did you have to do with anything?"

"She was my me... My wife." Del said beginning to get angry himself, "Yes I loved her, we kept each other sane, the only sanity either of us could find. So many others died, from suicide or while giving birth, but we both survived!"

"No, you survived, she is dead." Jess snapped, her face red with fury, "And wife? You are both women, and not to mention she had a husband, a family, here, who needed her."

With a shake of his head, Del stepped forward and placed his hands on the woman's shoulders, "Stop it, stop it! I know shes dead! I didn't know how to get back or I would have taken her home years ago."

Jessica's fury boiled over and her hand lashed out. She struck Del across the head, and her hand came away bloody, "What the fuck?" She screeched as she looked down at the deep gouge in her palm.

"I changed, I'm not a woman anymore, at least not entirely... and more than that..." He trailed off, she wasn't listening, refused to listen to this... this creature. Instead of trying to convince her with words, he bunched up his clothing and pulled it over his head. He still wore a freshly made sash under it, covering his privates, but the rest of his black scales and dark amber hide were quite visible... including the stubby horns that dotted his brow in a crown, one of which was now covered in her blood.

Behind her Jess heard Lily's gasp. She looked up to see the chimeric beast that stood before her, but Delilah was there, she saw it in her face, in what was left of her hair, in the blue eyes and the few human features left to her. For the longest time Jess stood there, slack jawed, staring at the demonic face and corrupted body, but eventually the soft pock and splat of blood hitting the floor brought her attention back to the pain, "I don't care what you are or what you think you knew about my mother. Fuck off." Jess said, almost calm as her eyes stared fixed upon her bleeding palm.

"Very well." Sadly whispered, then added, "If you ever want to talk..."

"Fuck off!" Interrupted Jess with renewed fury.

Ch. 8 - Balance

For months they kept up the foreigner facade, it was not something that could be hidden forever but they tried. One afternoon the whole thing came crashing down when their neighbor stopped by with a trade offer and found Del working in the garden, in the nude. In the past Erin had exchanged eggs and vegetables for venison so his arrival wasn't surprising, but certainly awkward. Before Del could stop the man, or even say anything, he took off running back to his truck and went tearing down the drive.

A quick call later, Oren and Zach found the neighbor, hold up in his cabin, "Come on now Frank, we just want to talk to you!" Zach shouted while hunched behind his truck door. Frank had fired a warning shot in to the air on their approach.

"What do you want Zach? You're contaminated too I bet'cha." The terrified man shouted back, all that could be seen was the end of his rifle poking out the window, between the shutters.

The sheriff yelled back, "What the hell do you mean contaminated, just what have you been smoking Frank?"

"I'm as sober as a judge, sheriff. Just look under that there dress and you will see what I mean." Frank insisted.

At last Oren stepped out of the truck and stood there, in full view, "Del told me you saw him, hes not contaminated with anything. He was as human as you once."

"Hah!" Frank exclaimed, "Was, you say! And now hes contaminated by aliens!"

Oren glanced to Zach, over the hood of the truck and shrugged, "Well..."

"Yeah yeah I know, its kinda true isn't it." Zach lamented, then shouted again, "It's not like that Frank. I mean, well, it is but it's not catching. God damn it would you put that gun down and just talk to us?"

For a long while there was silence. But at last the gun disappeared from the window and the front door opened, "Alright... but I'm not going out there with her, you can come in."

"Alright." said Zach and started forward, "But if you shoot me, so help me frank, I'll skin you alive."

Outside Oren stood and watched for what felt like an eon. She shuffled back and forth, sat back in the truck, got back out, even circled the cabin twice. By the time the two came out again she was ready to walk herself home, "So?" She asked with a pointed glance to Zach.

"You're really an alien?" Frank said and poked her in the shoulder once.

Another pointed glance to Zach, then muttered, "I guess so." What could you say to a question like that.

"Where's yer space ship?" He asked and peered upward.

"You've been watching too much X-files." Frank scolded as he wandered back to the truck.

Oren, with a little grin told him, "We are actually less advanced than you humans in most ways."

"Well how did you get here then?" He demanded.

To witch Oren shrugged, "You would have to ask Del, hes the one who brought us here, though I don't believe he remembers."

"He? I thought Del was lil' Delilah." Frank asked, confused.

Oren sighed and turned back to the truck herself, "You humans... Gives me a headache."

"What? What did I say?" Protested Frank as she shut the truck door and Zach pulled away.

After that it was inevitable that others learned. Some were incredulous while others fascinated, but for the most part it brought a strange sense of closure to the town. Delilah had been taken as a child, and returned at last, though the rest had died or were left behind, at least there was some truth to what had happened. Del was labled "deformed", a new ID card printed, and was once again a proper American citizen... for better or for worse.

Oren on the other hand was left off the record. She had made friends with many in town over the past few years and once the truth came out, many felt strangely protective over their resident alien. Silently she wondered if Del's son had anything to do with it, occasionally she had brought him to the library, he could have done something at any time to affect their minds. But in either case, she was well liked and looked after.

Though Erin had left them the house, money was a separate problem. First the electric went out after a few notices, this didn't bother either of them much, but soon other supplies began to run out. Neighbors helped as much as they could, but the community was poor. By early fall they were worried, surviving off the land was one thing, but they didn't have enough supplies to last the winter.

Del's birthday came on the 3rd of October and it brought with it a festive, if tense air. With it also came strong memories of prior birthdays as a Djheni, "Amaunan... Every year since I was a child, a week before my birthday I would go to the great forge under the citadel and help them work."

Oren nodded, "I remember, I never had enough magic to assist, but Master used to speak of your help often, said you were a natural."

"I could do that here, couldn't I. I've not woven a chant in years now, but, I'm sure I could. A few ingots of rare metal and we could afford anything we wanted." Del said excitedly. He seemed almost childlike ever since he came back.

"It took the forge master hundreds of men to pull up all that copper, can you do it alone?" asked Oren.

"I don't need to pull up near as much as they did, they would bring in cart loads to last an entire year. I think..." He trailed off after a moment, then slid to the floor and sat cross legged to meditate. Oren watched in silence, she had seen him work the chant only a couple times through the years. Eventually he rose to his feet and stepped outside; in the night he began to dance, a slow careful dance. He was rusty, even Oren could tell, but the power, grace, and poise was still there. To her surprise he didn't chant, he just danced in silence.

A glow began to form in the air before him, yellow-orange and rippling. Dancing shadows cast across the forest about them. Oren stepped out and followed around him to see a growing spec of something, glistening with heat. It was no more than the size of a marble, but growing larger. Wind lashed the trees as a sudden storm sprung up about them. Veins of energy poured inward, fogging the air along pressure changes. If Oren could have seen what Del saw through his minds eye, she would have been blinded by it; from the sky he pulled momentum, drawing the wind to him, from deep under ground he drew heat and specs of the element he sought out. Under his feet, grass wilted and died as the caustic flow of energy welled upward.

When he finished a misshapen lump of copper landed with a thunk at his feet. It still glowed with heat and the dead grass under it burned with little flares and wisps of smoke. Del stepped away from it and wiped sweat from his eyes, "I couldn't reach the chantry." He told Oren, then sat down on the stoop and looked up in to the sky. His eyes were clenched, his brow pinched, and he seemed in great pain.

"If... if that wasn't the chant, what was it?" She asked then made her way over to him and tried to ease the tension from his body with delicate fingertips.

"I've always been connected to something else, since I was a babe. Back home it was fragile and weak. The farther I went from Emorre, the weaker it got. I realized the potency I wielded came from a tree, a tree from this world I had brought to that one. You remember that branch Omo had when she rescued us? It was a branch of that tree. That was what allowed us to come here." Del told her, then looked up to the swaying trees. The atmospheric disturbances were worrying him. He could see the energy flaring about, angrily, like some one had kicked up a hornets nest.

Oren looked up following Del's gaze and saw the wind thrashing the trees about. As she watched a branch came crashing to the forest floor next to the cabin, "What is going on?" She asked as she molded herself to her Djheni.

"I'm not sure I should have done that..." He told her, and was very concerned, he had upset the natural balance of the area and it was like a smooth stream that had turned in to a boiling rapids after an earth quake. He extracted himself from Oren's arms and stood once again, "I think I can smooth this out but go inside, please."

Deep in the forest a tree came crashing down with a crackling thunder as wood splintered. Del once again began his dance, but this time he simply acted as guide, directing the uneven flows through himself and back to where they belonged. Bit by bit he began to understand what he had done, like pulling a rubber band too tight, or bending a spring. His dance changed, smoother, fluid, less about thrust and force. Energy from the air he pulled back out of the ground and fed in to the sky, energy in the earth he eased back down, like water back in to a sponge.

Even as Del danced, the wind whipped up greater and greater. The house shook, tar shingles ripped from the roof and plaster cracked. Oren sat hunched in on herself, near the center of the house as she looked out the open front door. A crash of thunder from the clear night sky made her heart skip a beat as the sky lit up right over the house. Del seemed impervious to the wind however as he danced, not a single golden hair upon his head stirred in the breeze. Then as suddenly as it came, the wind stopped, the night was silent and still.

The Djheni looked exhausted as he stumbled back in to the house. With the door closed, the stillness of the night was strange. The house was dark now, all the candles having snuffed out by the winds, the only sound being Del's quick breaths and the low thud of his heart. He stumbled over and collapsed in to Oren's awaiting arms, flesh hot and damp with sweat. His hair draped over her face as their lips met in a brief affection, "I need to find balance. I pushed too much in one way, and everything snapped back."

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Oren told him, then pressed a kiss to his brow and held his head to her breast, letting him rest within her, "Maybe you just need some ancient Chinese secrets, they are all about balance."

He laughed a short, tired laugh, "You seem to know more about my home than I do."

"Well that is to be expected Del, I have read almost every book in the library. Hmmm... Speaking of which I think I know just the book for you, it's ancient, it's Chinese, but not exactly secret. I'll bring home a copy tomorrow." Oren replied thoughtfully.

The next day they went in to town, Del to seek out some way to sell the three hundred pound hunk of pure copper she had dredged up, and Oren to take advantage of the library as usual. The local hardware shop took an interest; although they admitted they wouldn't be able to afford it outright, they did offer to get in touch with some one who might be interested, for a price. Del took them up on the offer, though dodged questions about where it had come from.

Afterword he made his way to the library and found Oren with her face in a book while the librarian played solitaire on a computer, "Oren, no money today, but they did say they knew some one who might buy it."

"Good! I miss warm baths." She replied, then lifted her head up and held out a small black and white covered book, "Here, this is what I was talking about, some sort of Chinese mysticism, maybe it will help?"

Laughing, del took the book and said, "You know, for some one who hates how wet it is here, you sure do like water."

Oren scowled behind her veil, "Look, fresh clean water is a far cry from swampy, molding, muddy forests. Did you know there are swamps not far from here, that have hundreds of feet deep moss growing in them? Some places if you step in the wrong spot, you just fall through the plants in to the water and drown!"

"Really now!" Del said with a patient smile as he checked the book out. Del chuckled at the librarian's annoyance at being interrupted, then made his way out, "I'll see you tonight Oren."

On his way home, Del read while walking along the highway. The book was mostly gibberish to Del, a multitude of passages he could make neither heads nor tails of. Some eighty one pages, and each one supposedly there to teach a deep life lesson, but only a handful even made sense. Bit by bit though Del began to understand and with as long as the walk was, he had read the book a dozen times over by the time he arrived home.

Naked and comfortable, he at last began practice; starting with the wind. The wind was the most familiar, it flowed rapidly and brought great forces with it. His inner eye was half lidded, shielded against the brilliance of the world, but even so he could see the currents of air about him, tossing his hair, the trees, and bringing with it potential that would feed back on itself. Before when he had forged the copper he had used the wind like a resource, dragging it down and consuming it. However the wind was movement, it was a continuum, it had to be guided in its flow, not gathered up and thrust like a sword.

The chantry was a power built, like a dam creating a lake. Then once the water was gathered, you released the flood and it did what you told it to. This magic however was very different, if you tried to tame it, tried to dam it up, it affected everything else around it in unexpected ways. If you stroked it wrong, it could vibrate like a guitar string and start other lines of potential vibrating as well. Or in the case of his failed mining, tangle like a knot of yarn, quivering and angry.

Del began to play, practicing his new grasp of this art. His dance fluid and meaningful, as if he were catching gusts of wind and redirecting them. He caught a leaf and tossed it in the air. There it stayed for an hour, one gust after another keeping it in place. Then he tried two threads of wind, bringing them together like scissors; the air trembled with contempt and he lost control of his leaf. Again he tried and again he failed; over and over, adding new twists, new techniques, but the wind refused to obey him.

He stopped after a while and as he did, he noticed two hazel green eyes peering out from behind a poplar tree, "Hello there." He said with a smile, "Lily, right?" It was Jessica's daughter. Once seen the child spooked like a squirrel and was off through the trees on graceful bare feet. He laughed and remembered his own youth, exploring these forests, visiting the Willards, tripping in to springs and coming home drenched. Del suspected she would be back.

Ch. 9 - Learning

The copper sold, netting them enough money to turn the power back on and restock some of the supplies as well as fix the roof. Del went for a far more rare mineral the second time, palladium. It was Oren's suggestion after she read a handful of interesting books on electronics, alloying and metallurgy. She also "borrowed" a catalytic converter from the auto repair shop down town so Del could familiarize himself with it. This time mother nature didn't come down and slap Del for messing with her, this time he dredged the minerals up and carefully placed them together in a crucible he had purchased. The tiny spec grew to a pea, then a blob, and by the time the sun rose he had a little under a pound of the silvery metal, cooling together. In truth it was a small fortune and would hold them through the winter.

Once the metal sold, Del had to open a bank account to cash the check; no one was going to pay four thousand in cash. It felt strange doing things in a modern world that everyone else took for granted. For most of his life all he knew was feudal deserts, and now he was shopping for a computer in the next town over because Oren wanted one. When he had been born in the sixties, the closest he had come to a computer, was the egg timer his mother had or the calculator Ron Willard owned. Now they were common appliances, one in every home.

She knew what she wanted, and picked carefully, spending almost half of the money he had just made. She also picked up a free disk labeled AOL from another counter, "Can't properly use it without the internet, now can I!" She said brightly and Del just peered at her with a cockeyed expression,

"The what?" He asked.

Oren explained the concept for the second time, and at Del's pained expression, she said quietly, "I'll show you when we get home."

"I feel so..." Del started, then trailed off with a shrug as he paid.

"Out of date?" Oren offered cheerfully.

With a growl Del glanced back and grumped, "Oh be quiet."

"Yes Djheni." Oren said in a perfectly demure voice, but her eyes sparkled behind her veil.

The cashier on the other hand gave them both a curious eye, but couldn't make out their language, "Paper or plastic?" He asked dimly, then bagged up the parts and thanked them for their patronage.

Oren had forgotten a rather important step to her whole scheme; though they had all the components necessary, and the computer started up perfectly well, they didn't have phone service. A few days later a technician came out and hooked it up for them, but in the mean time Oren had put Del through rigorous practice using the arcane device. He felt more comfortable with his earth magic than the strange whirring contraption she was so fascinated by.

Even with the fabled internet, he didn't at first see her point. It wasn't until he dipped in to modern physics on some strange discussion page that he began to draw insight. Things he understood as truths of magic, fundamentals of the universe, were also talked about from other viewpoints. Humans had discovered the same things through trial and error without the help of the chantry. In fact, they had a greater understanding because of it, no shortcut meant full comprehension.

Then the computer stopped with something called a bad pool. Oren was clueless and he even more so. For days they tried to make the machine behave, but it would never complete its reboot, always ending in that same damned blue screen. Oren was at her wits end, pulling components apart, putting them back together, tightening screws, loosening screws, but nothing seemed to help. It was in fact Del who suggested, "Perhaps the problem is deeper? Maybe something is wrong with one of the parts we purchased?"

Del began to dance, circling around the poor broken machine. At his command Oren gave it life again and with his minds eye he watched the energy flow through it, sharp and bright. Then it stopped with a flare and sat there as the error occurred once again. Once more Oren rebooted and Del watched, then slowed it. He put careful resistance on the flow, and followed each shifting pulse of energy as it danced through circuit and wire. Over and over again they repeated it and he focused on each section, searching for the point at which it stopped. When at last he found it, he was overjoyed, "That card thing, the one right there!" He exclaimed as he pointed to a stick of ram.

"Can you fix it?" Oren asked hopefully.

He took the stick of ram outside under the afternoon sun and began to inspect it, visually at first, then mentally. It was primarily a thing of copper, something he was familiar with, the texture of each copper atom against his mind, the arrangement and stresses in its surface. Eventually he found it, a single damaged part, etched wrong and leaking electricity in to other parts of the component. It was an easy fix once he figured out how it was meant to work, ingenious really and so finely detailed he could hardly believe it. He had made tiny things before from metal, needles and wires for instance; mammoths compared to the finely detailed structures within each chip.

Within an hour he had the thing back in the computer and everything worked once more. Outside the window a head disappeared, Lily had been watching the entire bizarre activity. When she told her mother about the strange voodoo used to resurrect the computer, Jess disregarded it entirely and returned to her drink. With a pout the girl ran back outside and off to find some more mischief.

Del on the other hand spent the next week learning more and more. His brief experience with repairing the computer had barely wet his appetite. He found pages discussing nano technology, circuits, transistors, microchips and more. He even ordered himself a do it yourself circuit board kit to play with. Oren, having wanted the computer for herself, realized she would have to pry the thing from Del's cold dead fingers if she wanted a turn, so instead she returned to the library and continued to borrow theirs. Daily however she begged him to get her another one, it would only be a few hours of work to scare up enough raw minerals to pay for it. The hardware store in town grew a bit suspicious however when Del came in with a half pound of nearly pure gold to sell; they snatched it up readily enough, but their expressions said it all.

As soon as he could, Del was back to reading, learning, and even beginning to talk with people from around the world. It fascinated him and he spent the large portion of his time online when he wasn't practicing magic. Week after week, month after month, passing the harsh winter busy within the net. The magic he practiced became more detailed and interesting the more he learned. The chaos that had caused such trouble before wasn't just a byproduct, it could be used as a surfer might use a powerful wave to ride back to shore. Also, the more time he spent around machines, the more in tune he felt with them; he could sense their electronic hum and read the raw data that flowed through them from miles away. Even the simple mechanics of a car passing on the highway.

Electronics were loud, they produced massive amounts of electromagnetic waste. That waste was also filthy, tainted with complexity and chaos. A high voltage power line might hum and is always wrapped in an intense field, but it was a pure and simple sine wave. A computer however leaked out so much congested confusion from those tightly bundled circuits--and Del began to comprehend it.

Late one night during the last snowfall of spring, Del woke with an odd feeling. The house was silent, the world outside was silent, the moon had set and all he could sense was Oren sleeping, curled up against his side. He rose, careful not to disturb his meru, and made his way out in to the falling snow. It was an insulator, dampening out the normally brilliant intensity all around him. There he stood, naked, knee deep in a snow drift with his head back and eyes closed. His mind spread out, taking in the dull countryside, seeking what it was that disturbed him so. Down, it was down, so he dove his consciousness in to the bedrock, seeking it out. Farther and farther he reached until he met a blackness, somewhere the natural world did not touch. But from it he felt vibrations, like that of a computer, but so complicated, so frequent it was like trying to look through a foam.

That wasn't what disturbed him though, what disturbed him was an echo of that. His own mind was emitting frequencies like a computer, but simpler and strangely disjointed. Why he had never noticed before he couldn't imagine, but now it never left his senses, always there. He tried to meditate, tried to clear his thoughts, but it was there, ever present from the moment he first noticed it. A sound at the edge of hearing that you cannot stop listening for, a taste half remembered, a scent from childhood forgotten. Then, as the sun began to peek above the horizon through storm clouds and falling snow, it faded. Even the source under ground vanished, he could feel nothing from it nor even find it again no matter how much he cast about. Both were simply gone.

Ch. 10 - Curiosity

Nothing in the world fascinated Lily more than her neighbors. Ever since that first day she had laid eyes upon his bronze and black body, like some sort of god with sunlight through his golden hair. When ever she got a chance she would sneak her way through the forest to their home and watch. There was frequently something strange and wondrous going on behind those open windows.

It was a hot day today without a cloud in the sky and she wore as little as her mother would allow, even still she was drenched in sweat by the time she reached her favorite vantage point. They were out in the yard today, doing something, though from where she was she couldn't tell what. Quiet as a mouse she inched her way about the house and peered at them. They were laying in the shade, one atop of the other. For a moment Lily wasn't sure, but then as Oren's head fell back and a sweet cry echoed out, she knew. She was young, but not that young, her mother had brought home one or two boyfriends over the years and Lily had learned enough in the school yard to piece together the rest.

Before her eyes the two were entwined in inhuman pleasure. Even from here she could hear the sticky wet slurps with each of Del's powerful thrusts. Occasionally even a glimpse of his bronze skinned phallus with wide smooth ridges would be visible between them. Her belly quivered as she watched Oren's orgasm begin, her large and graceful body arched to meet Del and her legs clenched on his waist like a vice, "Mi vethelor yi'ti Del..." She cried and with a snarl Del bit in to her throat and held her, like a vice as his own body began to release.

Lily whimpered quietly and brought a hand to her mouth as her hips jerked and her stomach clenching in time with Del's. His body bucked involuntarily, and Lily's body mimicked in empathy. Then they stilled, though Del held Oren in that tight vicious grasp for a good while yet. When at last he pulled away she could see the painful indentations upon Oren's throat. Then with a sudden sticky slurp Del pulled free and laid back. That burnished penis jutted in to the air, curving beautifully upward, nearly a foot in length and almost three inches in width. Each fold of flesh and cartilage upon the upper side flexed and wetness oozed down from them while it still leaked at a slow trickle from his urethra.

Lily slid back further, in to the shadow of the house as Oren crawled to her knees and began to clean him. Lily's mouth gaped a little and began to water as she watched the meru. She seemed desperately hungry for every drop that covered Del. But then when her eyes opened to seek more, they found something else, "My Djheni, we have company." She said with a husky voice, her eyes locked on Lily.

Del rose on to his elbows and peered over toward her and laughed out, "So we do... You've been spying on us for a while, you little minx."

Lily's face was beet red, even her ears glowed with embarrassment. She turned to run but Oren said, "I made some cookies this morning, would you like one?"

When she glanced back, Del's penis had mostly retreated and Oren was returning to her duty, "Y.. Yes please." Timidly she said. Any time her mother had caught her out spying on her and a boyfriend, she had been sent to bed with a red ass, "You're not angry?" She asked.

"Why would I be angry?" Del said, then sucked in a breath as Oren's mouth found a rather sensitive spot and suckled a dribble of mingled fluids from it, "Brat." He said kindly down to Oren as fingers curled about the back of her neck possessively.

Lily took a moment to think about that, but came up blank, "I dunno... I just... Mum always gets pissed."

With a playful twinkle in his eye, "I do believe that is her perpetual state, wouldn't you agree?" Del retorted. At that Lily could only agree, laughing. Then Del waved at her, "Go inside, they are on the table, take two if you like." He paused, then added, "Oh, and you probably shouldn't tell your mother what you saw here. I seem to remember a taboo or two."

Lily ran inside obediently and snatched up the two largest cookies she could find. They were double chocolate chip oatmeal, not her favorite, but it had chocolate so who was she to complain. A few minutes later the other two entered, Del fully cleaned though Oren still with a creamy mess dripping down her thighs. She excused herself and slipped into the bathroom while Del snatched up a cookie and sat down across from Lily, "So, what brings you out here today?" He asked.

Lily paused in her chewing, swallowed, then with a blush admitted, "Mum's drunk again, it's best I stay away till she falls asleep."

To that Del nodded, then reached over and ruffled Lily's short hair, "Well then, I'm sure we can find something for you to do. Tell me, have you ever done much with computers?"

With a shake of her head, lily admitted, "No, Mum says they are just for pedophiles, perverts and nerds. Though I did have a typing class last year in school." She paused and looked away to add, "I failed."

"Hmm, well I suppose, guess you might call me a nerd then?" He grinned as he said it, then stood up and beckoned her, "Come here, let me show you what I'm working on." He had turned Erin and Mark's old room in to a work shop and office.

Lily followed slowly, with her eyes on his tight muscular rear. She blurted out suddenly, "Why don't you wear clothes?"

With a chuckle Dell told her truthfully, "Clothes are to protect you from the elements, as a Djheni, the elements don't bother me. They are also there to protect you from prying eyes... but the only eyes that have been prying lately are yours. Hmmm? When I go in to town I put on that silly gown thing my meru made me, but I hate it, feels all stuffy under it."

From the bathroom they both heard Oren shout, "Yeah well next time I'll make it out of a garbage bag and you can suffocate in it!"

Giggling, Lily asked, "What's a meru?"

"Oh, er, I guess you could say a female, a wife, a mother." Del replied as he sat down at his work bench, then pulled out a second stool for her.

Lily climbed up in to it and peered at the array of... things. It was a mess of assorted bits and pieces, ceramics, metals, crystals, you name it all spread out haphazardly. After the brief distraction she glanced up and asked the next question on her mind, "Are you really both?"

"Both?" Queried Del.

"You know, um..." She glanced down at his stomach and blushed again.

"Ah... Well, yes. Djheni people are all both male and female, though I'm only part Djheni, I'm also part achera and the rest human." Del told her, then added, "You've a lot of questions, don't you."

Lily glanced up away from Del and out across the work bench, "Sorry!" She said and gave an embarrassed smile as she peeked back up toward his face, "You.. uh... wanted to show me something?"

Del nodded, "Right, right... Well I have a computer over there, I know you've seen me use it... but right here, I'm trying to build a better computer. Both to understand completely how they work, and just to have a better one." As he spoke he began to focus and the work bench came to life. The haphazard sprawling layout drifted upward in to the air, twisting and turning as he manipulated it. In two dimensions it was a mess, but held up in three dimensions it began to make sense... at least if you understood microchip diagrams, "See?"

Lily stared with her jaw hanging about to her knees and eyes as wide as dinner plates. She had seen him do funny dances and even occasionally toss leaves around, but she figured it was all a trick. Before her eyes though, a few thousand bits and pieces of... something... floated, aligned perfectly in a pattern, "Buh..." She muttered, then snapped her jaw shut and swallowed. She reached a hand out and poked one of the larger bits of metal; it dipped and swayed, like something on a rubber band, then snapped back in to place once she retracted the digit, "How are you...? What are you...?"

"Careful concentration." He told the girl with a little grin.

Behind him Oren said in exasperation, "Would you quit showing off you dope?"

"Oh go read a book." Del replied with a glance over his shoulder.

"Can I learn to do that?" Lily begged.

Thoughtfully Del laid the pieces back down then glanced to the child, "I don't know, I might be able to teach you the chantry, though I may have to give you some of my blood to do it. To be honest I don't know why I can do this, it's different..." Then he realized she had no idea what he was talking about, and just how alien he had truly become, "Why don't you ask your mother if you can come here tomorrow. If she says you can visit, I'll teach you, if not, then you will have to wait until you're a grownup. Alright?"

"She doesn't care that I do." Lily replied with a huff.

"I won't get on her bad side, and to learn from me, you're going to have to be here a lot, and she needs to know where you are." Del told her firmly. To which she nodded.

Ch. 11 - Blood

Del still could not cast from the chant, but how it worked was fresh in his mind from so many years of practice. Lily on the other hand took to magic like a fish to water; not that she could cast anything, but she dove right in and tried to swim as a natural. For some one so hyper all the time, she even managed to meditate as still as a stone at his side. Oren on the other hand was just thankful that he left her in peace to read.

The two of them had been practicing for months without getting anywhere, but he could feel her will, feel her reaching for the power all around her. When at last he felt she had enough discipline to try, he took her aside one morning, out in to the woods, "I told you before we started, I might have to give you some of my blood to help. I don't quite understand why it works, but if one of strength gives blood to one without, the weaker one becomes strong. I don't know what is supposed to happen, my own grandfather did this to me when I was a child, but it didn't work quite as intended for me. It is why I look the way I do now."

Lily listened in silence, though the quick flick of her foot, up and down, betrayed her eagerness. Carefully he balanced a cup on his knee, then with a sharp curved talon he gouged the flesh of his fore arm and let the dark red blood leak free. It was late fall and his body was adapting to the cold, so the blood was thick and syrupy. After a moment he put pressure on the wound, then with a moment of focus, seared the flesh closed. He then held the steaming cup out to her, "Drink it Lily, if you have courage and desire for power."

She took it with one hand and stared down in to it for a moment. It seemed almost black against the gray day and smelled bitter as she brought it to her lips. The first taste was vile, acrid and caustic across her tongue. She almost spit it out but resisted the urge and took a deep swallow of the viscous fluid. Her stomach cramped almost immediately and she gagged. Red leaked from the corner of her mouth and her pretty face wrinkled up in disgust. She heaved then stilled, then heaved again before it passed.

Del watched in silence with the memories of Knaira's bitter blood upon his lips. His inner eye watched with more focus, observing the interactions of the blood as it seeped in to her flesh. He had been careful to extract any toxic elements from his blood before giving it to her, anything leftover from the achera. He didn't think his blood was poison, but it might not be entirely comfortable either. Yet still it caused her great discomfort as it entered her system. Then at last, like a match being lit, a spark of something began to flare in the back of her mind. He watched it, like a radio antenna sparking to life. The signal wasn't radio, but it was something none the less, something he had felt only once before.

Lily felt awareness bloom behind her eyes. Where before he had described the sensation of raw energy, of manipulating the very forces of nature; she now felt it. When her eyes opened there came a flood of light that wasn't light, her vision foggy and distorted. The sun above her rained down with golden streamers, the trees flared with pulsating green and blue while the sky's gray melted in to the green and poured down in to the soil. She saw all this, felt all this, and knew a truth so profound she could never deny it, "Everything is connected." She breathed aloud. In her breath whorls of pink and green, gray and blue. They spilled from her like a rainbow flood, yet dull against the brilliance of the world around her.

"You can see it?" Del asked, and he reached out with his mind.

Before her inner eye great banners of radiance emerged and brushed a stray wind aside, then caught it and guided it back and around. It dipped and plucked a single leaf from the forest floor and brought it up, then caught it, slowly rotating a few inches from Lily's face, "You can touch the wind." She said, breathlessly, then she too tried to reach out, but nothing happened, "How do I...?" She pleaded.

"I taught you to chant, not this... give it a try." He told her, then let the leaf fall to her lap.

She did as bidden, beginning a slow steady murmur of power. He could feel it, like tension in a wire. That antenna within her quivered and out spilled a torrent of meaninglessness. Interference patterns, binary, something else he didn't recognize. It spread out from her, then as the chant grew more intense, reaching its crescendo, an echo returned from some where deep underground and far away. Del almost missed it as the leaf lifted from her lap and began to smolder. So distracted as he was by tracing the pathways of energy she emitted.

Then the leaf fell and the smoldering stopped at Lily's surprise, "I did it!" She cried and held up the leaf, a hole burnt through it.

"Yes you did!" He told her with a bright and wary smile, "Now be careful, don't light your mother on fire; I know she pisses you off some times, but you would regret it, trust me!" In truth he had just given her one of the most powerful weapons in the world and wondered if it had been wise. He had expected to maybe see a hint of the chant in her, a welling of power, but no actual control until a few tastes of his blood over the course of a year or two.

Through Del's observations he began to unlock a few curious secrets. For starters the reason his own chant was blocked. A specific chemical compound binding up certain receptors in his brain, receptors that fed in to an alien structure. This same structure appeared within moments of Lily ingesting his blood yet without the poison binding it up. In Oren the same structure existed, but it was malformed, missing even the most rudimentary functionality that existed within Del or even now Lily. The strangest thing about the structure was that it seemed an afterthought. It pushed aside the natural wrinkles and lobes in the brain to make room for itself. It was also quite disconnected, only a few fine lines of neurons leading to it; in Oren this was in her speech center, in Del it connected in a half a dozen other places.

One night after an exhausting rampage of affection, Del told Oren, "I don't think the chantry is natural. I think some one created it and put it in our genetic makeup."

Sleepily, Oren propped herself up on one arm to watch her Djheni's face in the moonlight, "You may be right, what of it?"

Del peered up at her, then reached out to cup her cheek, "I think I could give it to you, if you like, as I did Lily. I want to see how it forms."

Oren just stared as she pressed her face in to his palm, in truth she was a little scared of the proposition, "You can do that? You can see what goes on inside me?"

He nodded, "It's like a muscle, the more you flex it, the stronger it gets. It was really difficult at first when I fixed the ram, but its been getting so much easier." Seeing was one thing, actually manipulating something at that tiny scale was another. In his attempt to create a computer, he had to learn strange techniques to push and pull at molecules. Interlocking magnetic fields to excite, to charge, or align; creating larger tools to make smaller tools that could directly manipulate finer and finer details. Though he knew what was blocking his own chant, he as of yet had no way of removing the blockage without harming his own mind. Eventually Oren's silence got to him, and he pushed, "So? Would you like to chant?"

Demurely, "Whatever you command of me, my Djheni." She whispered, with emphasis on the final word.

"Maybe I can figure out why..." He trailed off, but his hand fell from her face to lay, fingers splayed over her stomach. Still her womb bared none of his children no matter how many times he seeded her. She laid down once more and rolled to face away from him. His arm encircled her and pulled her in to him, then dipped lower to cup between her thighs, still sticky with his semen.

Once again he let his inner eye open and gazed down in to her body; a kaleidoscope of energy, whorls, streams, and sparks of life that was her. He could tell the difference between her and the stain he left within her. They vibrated out of sync, a discordant melody that attacked her womb. At first Del was bothered, it seemed so violent, but no, it was life. He slipped deeper, focusing more until he found Oren's egg, a tiny cell drifting along within that battle. He could barely see it, so tiny amongst the vibrancy of life; no fertilization occurred, even as Del's semen flooded about it, not one penetrated its shell. He was wrong, there wasn't enough Djheni or even human within him to breed his own meru.

"I'm sorry Oren." He told her, but she had already fallen asleep, curled up in his arms.

Ch. 12 - On The Go

Time marched on, technology as well. Within a year Del had his first cellphone, hand crafted in fact, and tied to one of the local carrier's service. Lily grew like a weed and so did her power; Del used her like a guinea pig, practicing his manipulative art without her knowing. He was careful, but more than once his experiments disrupted her ability to chant; a taste of his blood cleared it right up. During those times he got to watch it work, almost virulent in the way it attacked her mind and body, burrowing in to cells and rewriting DNA. It was doing more than simply making those mental connections however.

The girl's hazel eyes had started to turn blue, her hair once auburn had highlights of gold, her face, once childlike with its short button nose shifted, to a hint of muzzle. She was becoming Del at the genetic level bit by bit. Something within him had the ability to splice the very building blocks of a person, specifically himself for so many years. It was also something he could not identify, it worked in a subtle, hidden way where only its influence was known like a hand tracing from behind a curtain and all you saw were the bumps. It was maddening but Del eventually had to give up his pursuit.

Oren was away much of the time now. With his help she had an identity, fake, but hers; with it she learned to drive, purchased a car, and spent most of her days going to a local community college for various subjects. Her work load was immense but she learned so quickly and rarely tired. She still wore her chadri of course and pretended she was a woman from the middle east. Del on the other hand had given up the uncomfortable gown and chose to wear shorts and a sash no matter where he went. Most of the town folk didn't bat an eye but on the rare occasion Jess spotted him, her eyes were unrelenting daggers.

The millennium came with great fanfare from most of the folks, though to Del it was just another year. With great care Del had made inroads in to the tech communities and even sold a few of his designs to large companies and patented some of his better ideas. He recognized he was no genius, but his intuitive understanding of matter and his hands on ability to manipulate it made his designs novel in many ways. Still he shied away from manipulating his own body or mind, afraid of doing more harm than good. He was already a symbiosis of genetic splices that shouldn't even work together, so the chant stayed well out of reach and Oren's belly was as smooth as ever.

Apart from Lily, Del had few real friends. Zach would occasionally come to visit and check up on him, but he felt alone in the community and longed to return home. He missed Knaira, he missed the taste of familiar foods, he even missed his mother. He also wondered occasionally what his son was doing, how he was getting along, but considering what happened with Master, he suspected the boy could make his own way in the world easily enough; he was half achera after all.

The twin towers fell the next year and once again the Americans beat the war drums. Children he had known became soldiers, mothers cried as they went to war. He watched the news feeds with as much rapt interest as Oren had of desert storm, "It's the same thing." She told him one evening as the TV blared over dinner.

"Is it? You have to remember, I wasn't awake for it. I have vague memories of the Vietnam war, but mom insulated me from the world." Admitted Del. They were on the outside looking in, though they lived here they were not Americans. Del lacked the pride or patriotism required to really care about the mobilization and Oren watched it as a purely intellectual concept.

Oren shrugged and shifted to a related topic, "I wonder if Mark is involved? I miss Erin." No word had come from them since that final note years ago. Zach had attempted to track Erin down to no avail and Mark's location was apparently an issue of national security, whatever that meant.

Year by year civil liberties shrank and secrets became harder and harder to keep. In late 2006 Oren came home from school in a frantic huff, "They know, they know they know they know!" She repeated while pacing back and forth in the livingroom.

"What do they know love?" Del asked and attempted to calm her down with a touch.

She looked at him with a frustrated scowl and told him, "They added these new machines at school, supposed to look for weapons on anyone coming on to campus. Well, it's as if you're naked! The look on that man's face when he saw what was under my chadri... I ran, what else could I do? Then when I came back around an hour later, there were police outside the school." She caught her breath from talking so fast and leaned in to him. Her body was quivering, pumped full of adrenaline.

"We have to leave then, the military knows about Djheni, right? That means as soon as those pictures get to the right people, they will know where to look for us. Hell, they might think were part of Al Qaeda or something since they also saw our kind down in Kuwait." Del told her as he began to pack, frantically. He didn't have much that he wanted to bring, but his laptop was key, it had photos, diagrams, plans, and all kinds of things that would be both incriminating and telling. The rest of the computers in the house he cooked, short circuting them at every pass and wiping the hard drives with a storm of magnetic interference. Nothing would ever be read from them again.

In the distance they could hear the low groan of a chopper getting closer, hopefully it was something else... hopefully. They both rushed out in to the night and jumped in the car. The highway they found blocked, flashing lights over the hill in either direction, "Where can we go?" Oren cried in a panic as they ditched the vehicle and darted in to the woods.

"Follow me." He told her, and lead her deep in to the forest, away from the house, away from the road, away from all civilization. Light flared somewhere off to the right, brilliant white and glaring yet far enough away not to betray them. A series of loud booms, followed by a few rounds from a rifle startled them, then was followed by only the distant vibration of a helicopter. Deeper he ran, feeling in his bones--something, something important that he had forgotten.

When he arrived, he stopped short and stared. That same accursed place, quietly he cursed the stone as he laid his hand upon it, "Why always here?" He asked no one in particular.

"What is it Del?" Oren pleaded, "What is this place?" She stopped and in the darkness there was a moment of recognition, "I know this place, this is where we arrived the first time."

"No shit?" Del exclaimed, then added, "This is also where mother and I bridged the gap to your world and where I woke up after Master left."

He searched the area, trying to find something, anything. The world was quiet and peaceful here, but only a mile away he could feel the presence of machinery. At last, his hand brushed a branch as he ducked under it and he stopped. It was as if a lightning bolt rode along his synapses, a connection so deep and powerful he wondered how he could have forgotten it. He pressed close to the trunk of that tree and felt his world open up, from night to day, within his mind, "Here..." He shouted over the growing ruckus.

Oren leaned in close, "What is it?" She asked in to his ear.

"This tree, its the same one on the other side. I can feel... Feel both sides." He shouted back and tried to reach, tried to bridge the gap, but the only way he knew how was with the chantry.

The helicopter swooped above then circled around, a floodlight came on and found them, huddled around the trunk of a birch. Shots rang out and Oren screamed. She clutched her thigh and fell to a knee, blood running down from her leg. Another shot clipped Del in the shoulder and the pain brought with it panic. They weren't even trying to capture him, it was a kill mission. In that panic something took shape, not quite a memory but a reflex. It wasn't in his mind, but the tree felt what he felt, the tree was afraid for him, it was a part of him even now after so many years.

There was a thump, like a stone in water, hollow and echoing. Everything seemed to invert and squeeze out like a toothpaste tube grabbed in the middle. Del wanted to scream but there was no breath in his lungs. He tried to reach out to Oren, but his arms didn't reach. Then came a moment of chaos, whorling sand and dust, a shower of splinters, a sharp pain all along his side. Above him the light brightened, at first he thought the helicopter was landing, but the light was wrong, not the glaring white of a floodlight, but the deep bloody red of...

Ch. 13 - Monster

The oasis was dry this time of year, the trees brittle and sunken. Del had landed half way up one of the carniverous blood sucking menaces that dotted the area, and shattered it with his body. Broken inch long thorns covered his side, as well as a bullethole through that shoulder. Below him was a crater, with rippled sand in piles as far as twenty yards from the impact. In the center of it lay Oren, crumpled and silent.

With care he extracted himself from the dangerous plant and dropped to his feet on the desert floor. He landed wobbly, and almost fell on his bloodletting side but caught himself, "Oren?" He asked and rolled her over. She still breathed, for that he was thankful, though her leg looked pretty badly damaged, the bullet had nicked her bone and probably cracked it. His sash was blood stained and torn, but enough of it was undamaged and he bound it about her thigh to stop the bleeding. Then with the utmost care he hoisted her upon his shoulders and began to march away from the oasis, toward Emorre.

The city looked unchanged as he approached. Sand stone walls thick and undamaged, colorful pennants flying in the breeze. It felt familiar, right, even brought joy to his trembling heart. But the gate was unguarded and the streets were mostly empty. There were no venders with savory meats and fat dripping sausages. In fact the place was strangely hushed. He could hear a cart squeaking by some two streets over and the muted clang of a smith working half way across the city. Each building seemed deserted, only a few flew colors and even those were worn and tattered, untended for months.

At the citadel he did at last find guards, but they were gruff and suspicious as he approached. Once they saw his black scales however a cry rose up and they allowed him to pass. At first he expected a welcome to that cry, but the muted sounds of marching feet told him otherwise. Before he even saw the soldiers he felt the downy threads of the magi, clouding his mind. He could fight, he might even win, but in his current state, with Oren so badly hurt, he wasn't sure she would survive it.

He fell to one knee and laid his meru to the dusty street and looked up. Some one stood at the entrance to the great hall staring down at him, but he couldn't make out the Djheni. It was not Knaira. Before he could move a sudden wave of pressure landed on his mind and darkness came to whisk him away.

He awoke alone, dangling by his arms in a cell, somewhere deep underground. He could taste the fire of the achera on his lips, but no heat burned in his mind. He flexed and pulled himself to his feet, there was no pain, his arm well healed, but it was weak. At least a month for such a critical wound. Some where in the darkness he heard a scrape then a thud as a heavy door opened. Del let himself hang again and pretended to sleep as the deadbolt clanked and the door creaked open.

Through half lidded eyes he couldn't tell who his keeper was, but his feet fell heavily upon the stone. The door shut again and he was left in darkness with whomever it was. For a moment the silence stretched, then a voice, slippery, arrogant, and dismissive intruded, "You can drop the pretense father, I know you are awake."

"Father?" Del mouthed, but his voice only a dry hiss.

An outstretched hand illuminated as a single flame erupted, casting the small cell in light, "Yes, father, don't you recognize me?" He said, and Del did.

"Shadow..." He mouthed and stared up at his son. He was a beast of a man, nine feet tall at least, even hunched over. His body was clad in large armor like scales that clacked lightly as he moved. He wore no adornment, no sash or ornament, but his face bore an air of command.

"Yes, you're right, I am a monster, a glorious monster from your nightmares, here to torment you." Shadow said, dredging the thoughts from Del's head, then he struck with an open claw, shredding Del's chest and laying flesh open. Blood ran freely in sheets down his stomach to pool in his sheath and coat his thighs. Del screamed and the beast just sighed, "That smell... that feel." He inhaled deeply and leaned his face in close to Del's, "I waited for you, you know. I waited so long."

A flood of alien memories intruded on his thoughts, hatred, disgust, fear. Shadow's memories, memories of people around him, alone in the crowd, memories of fake smiles and kind lies while he could feel every truth behind the fascade, "I'm sorry..." Del sobbed out, feeling each one of those memories like a paper cut on his heart and they just kept coming.

"Yes, you are." Shadow told him and another blow came from the darkness, flaying Del's cheek open to the bone. He could taste his own blood as it poured in to his mouth and his breath rushed out through the gap along his side teeth.

More memories intruded on Del's consciousness, emotions twisted, affection stolen then rejected. No matter how many times he tried to find love and peace, it was thrown back in his face. His first meru, a gift from Knaira, fleeing in to the night with blood running from her broken body. No, not his... Shadow's. These were Shadow's thoughts, not his own, Shadow's memories. But he couldn't really tell them apart, couldn't see where he ended and the monster began. Then another memory, his mother pinned to the floor under him--no, Shadow. A memory of Knaira's fury. A memory of secret corruption and a slow betrayal. Del watched helplessly as his son's memories unfolded in to him. The death eater's were first, Knaira's power sapped away and converted to his cause. Then the other generals, one after one, turning against their liege.

The memories stopped and Del just sobbed in abject horror and self hatred. He felt as if he had two people inside of them, one the long road he had walked, the other his son, a malignant horror that stalked every pleasure and every joy he had ever known. His face lifted to look upon Shadow's face and found only pleasure there at his own suffering. Shadow nodded thoughtfully and said, "Yes, I am enjoying this. Hmmm, why don't we bring your mother in? I'm sure she would enjoy seeing you again, it has been so long."

Del felt a moment of terror, "No!" He cried, "Don't hurt her."

"I'll do as I please, thank you. But I have no intention of hurting her..." He trailed off with a coy smile, "She is after all baring my child." He left then, leaving Del to his agony and his sorrow. His wounds seeped and he grew weak, but eventually they stopped bleeding. Hours faded away as he drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point he remembered drinking something but not who gave it to him.

When Del's mind cleared again it was with a shock as cold water splashed across his face, "Rise and shine father!" the voice said, Shadow again, "I brought some one who is so very eager to see you."

In the mage light, Del could see Janet, though his eyes blurred and stung with water. She was old, far older than he had realized, far older than should have been possible for her to breed; yet her stomach was quite gravid, "Oh Delilah!" She cried and rushed to him, pure joy on her face. She peppered his face with kisses, eliciting a cry of pain as her lips brushed over the deep wounds Shadow had left on him, "Ahh I see you have bee pleasing our Liege, I hope you are being a good girl for him."

"Indeed she has Janet, why don't you reward her for her service?" Shadow suggested with a lewd smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

Before Del, Janet sank to her knees and pressed a hand to his sheath. A moment passed as her fingers fished inside until the found his hidden length. His hips twitched involuntarily as she touched his sensitive head and coaxed him to an erection. He tried to pull away but his back was already to the wall and he was too weak to stand, "Mother... please..." He started to say, but it dissolved in to a shuddering groan as her skilled mouth enveloped him. She had served as a meru for nearly forty years now and her ability to please was rivaled by none. His member emerged for her and she claimed it with a delicate and delicious touch that sent conflicting shivers in to his core. His own mother, his very old mother, it made him rather ill, but the pleasure she inflicted obeyed no silly taboo.

He felt himself growing closer, his body writhed helplessly before her as her fingers penetrated his sex, sending mixed pleasures through him. But before he could release, Shadow said quietly, "Give him pain." And she did. He screamed as teeth sank in to his penis, sharp as a knife. Blood filled Janet's mouth and her shining eyes stared up in to his with a grin upon her lips. Laugh lines creased and she seemed to be so enjoying herself. The fingers she burrowed in to him curled in to a fist and stretched her rarely used entrance until he felt skin tear and his blood leak down her arm. He looked away in agony and Ecstasy, his face flush with shame, pleasure, and pain. He was still on the edge of his orgasm, still seconds away from his peak, and his mother still pleasured him even as she made him suffer. When he came, blood stained semen rushed from between her lips and ran in a torrent down her naked chest.

"Why?" Del asked, his voice tight.

"Why not?" Shadow replied, then said firmly, "Come meru." To which Janet pulled away and spat the mixture of blood and cum to the floor and looked to Shadow. He nodded to her and Del watched his mother crawl away on all four and press her stained face against one of Shadow's thighs. Above her nose his wrinkled vent yawned a little, the black sticky skin opening with an inner fold oozing out. Janet leaned up and lapped at it, then buried her face in him, sucking and rubbing with ungraceful grunts and slurps. The more she licked, the wider his cloaca spread and yellow mucus oozed from him across her face as the slimy wrinkled head began to emerge.

"Now, I think you have played Djheni long enough, don't you? You were born a meru and though I should be grateful you sired me, I think we both know what your true place in life is." He stepped forward, knocking Janet out of the way, and reached down to grab a handful of Del's hair, "Be a good girl and open up?" He asked as he pressed his vent to her face.

She thought of resisting, but that thought melted away in a brief flash of confusion. She thought of biting him, but as her mouth came open, she forgot to bite. She thought to hit him, but instead her shackled hand simply laid to his stomach in a gentle touch. She thought no more as the sticky head slipped between her lips. It was large but pliable, the head wrinkled with a multitude of clefts and folds and the skin hung slack as her tongue slid about it, attempting to pleasure him. She suffocated but didn't seem to mind as his vent settled nicely over her muzzle. The taste was bitter, the smell was horrid, but bit by bit she felt it excite her, felt herself hunger for it. She knew what was happening, she knew why it was happening, but what resistance could you raise when your adversary changed your own mind the moment you thought of it?

She swallowed his girth and felt herself surrender, like a willow bending to the wind, she bowed to his needs and found joy in it. Tears ran down her cheeks to mix in the filthy yellow slime that covered her face, throat, and chest. When he pulled free of her, extracting his length from her throat, she about sobbed, like a piece of her had been stolen away and lost for ever. But then he threw her about, face to the wall and pressed in again against her back. She struggled to her feet upon wobbling legs and lifted her hips to meet him, desperate for that sexual connection, like an addict feinding for his next fix. He sank to the hilt in her core and for a moment she was complete, nothing was wrong in the world, nothing could be wrong.

Then it was. Everything was wrong, she was hurting him, she was killing him. He struggled to take control of her mind, but whatever did it was out of his reach, her mind was his, through and through but still she killed him. Her hips bucked back to meet him and he screamed as an orgasm tore its way from his body, a mixture of semen and blood rushing from his cloaca to bathe her belly while the rest flowed up his seminal duct and deposited in her womb. She bucked again, helpless to stop it, helpless to save her liege.

Del's mind opened and reached out, she could see the energy flowing, like electricity through a wire, burning up in the process. Every cell, every fiber, every muscle in Shadow's body burned at the molecular level. DNA ripped in to tatters, cells ruptured and his mind screamed like the squelch of a plasma arc on steel. She tried to pull away but his body simply pushed in to her. She tried to stop the flow, but it was subtle, like trying to stop the wind with a net.

Then it stopped, abruptly as it had started; Del stood tall and looked down at his son, a quivering helpless wretch on the floor. Something had flowed back in to the boy, something Del did not recognize, but in those eyes he saw himself looking back, his self as it might have once been, "I could never be your meru, Shadow." Del told him.

The voice that returned was a timid, quavering thing, "What did I do to you my Liege?" Shadow asked, but those eyes did not see Del, they looked inward.

Del stared down in confusion and felt Shadow, not just the flow of energy, but the information contained in that energy. Delicately he plucked a thought from Shadow's mind, felt it melt in to his like cotton candy on the tongue. For a moment he thought he was a meru, belonging to Shadow, he thought he was Delilah, he thought he was Shadow. Then he pulled the rancid, confusing mess from his thoughts and shoved it back down, rejecting the whimpering mess outright, "What did you do to yourself Shadow?" Del asked, but some how he knew.

"What? I'm Delilah--your meru, please my Liege! What's wrong, what happened?" Shadow cried and limply grasped at Del's ankle.

This thing, this pathetic thing was all that was left. Shadow had drank too many minds, he had lost too much of himself. Suddenly Del recalled Omolaud, years ago, telling him about some one she once knew, "Forgive me Shadow, if I could go back, I would have stayed here with you, cared for you. You would have made me proud I'm sure." Del dropped to one knee, feeling stronger and healthier than he had in years. He reached down to cup his son's terrified face, then with a quick, sharp twist, snapped the boy's neck.

In the corner a quiet whimper accompanied that sickening crunch, "What did you do Delilah?" Janet asked, her voice wavering.

Del reached out to her and found the knots in her mind, like wounds you keep bumping, a stubbed toe that keeps getting stubbed. He soothed them, finding balance in her again. To do it he had to take her mind in to himself, interrupting her mental circuit and adding himself to it. Alien memories and emotions washed over him, influenced him, and in turn he felt some of himself leak in to her, tainting her memories as he put them back. It couldn't be helped, he was too different, too alien to ever touch her mind without changing it. She would never be quite the same again, she had been changed too deeply by Shadow. It was however enough, her eyes found his and tears sprang to them, tears of grief, tears of joy, tears of relief, "Del!" She cried and threw herself in to his arms.

Gingerly he lifted his old mother and carried her from the room, "Oh mother, I missed you so much..." He whispered, and peppered her face with kisses as she had done him; though made a face at the mess left there.

"Please, please tell me that was a dream, I didn't feel like me, I didn't feel..." She trailed off as he kissed her brow and laid her head to his chest,

He would not lie to her, but as kindly as he could he told her, "It was no dream mother, but it is over now."

"Knaira!" She whispered and tugged on his shoulder, "He's in one of these cells, please..." It took Del a short while to find him, huddled in a dark cell, half starved and quite weak. Janet ran off to fetch help as Del carried the once proud Djheni from the dungeons and back up in to the Citadel. Oren he found a few hours later, locked in the harem under the influence of achera fire. When she sobered up Del was quite relieved to find her whole and healthy.

Ch. 14 - Homecoming

For years Del had dreamed of returning home but always feared he would have to bring some great gift to gain Knaira's good graces once again. Once the citadel was put in order and messengers sent out to all near by cities that Emorre was back, things settled down. It would perhaps be a few years before the city entirely recovered, but Knaira was in a wonderful mood and even Janet, though still quite pregnant, seemed happier than Del had ever seen her. Though no one found fault with him, Del still blamed himself for what had happened, "If I had not run off, he would never had suffered the way he did. His telepathy meant every time he touched a mind, he became what he touched and influenced that mind as well. It was essentially a self fulfilling prophecy." Del told Knaira.

"It doesn't matter, no one could have known the ramifications of a half ashera in court. To be honest I will miss him. As a child he was a delight, so quiet and friendly. Remember what you told me years ago, about being a father? Ahh... how did you put it, 'it is more than the siring to make one a father'...?" Knaira told him, with a strange vigor.

Del pointedly interjected, "You will shortly have another chance, Janet is pregnant as you well know."

For a moment they were both quiet, in thought, then Knaira muttered, "I must do it right this time then, shouldn't I. Else wise I might as well order my own execution."

With a quick shake of his head, Del said, "Don't think of it like that father, this child will be your son, maybe the strongest son you have ever had. He will bring glory and honor to your name. Love him and he will learn to love." At that Knaira huffed, nodded, and shooed Del off.

Del was home, truly home. He lay in his bath, watching the sun set over the city. Oren knelt at his side, washing the dust from his scales. He had changed much when he drank of Shadow, but his outward appearance had been the least of it. His size had increased and bones once again ached fiercely from growth pains. His scales had spread farther, leaving little left of his once handsome hide but for his face and crotch. He felt almost as if he were carrying around a heavy coat of armor all day long that clacked and shook with every step.

Oren didn't care much about the change, she knew him, she loved him, and once alone with him had practically impaled herself upon him. Afterwords she quietly blamed the fire of the achera, but he could feel her mind now. Though he tried not to intrude upon anyone's privacy there was a radiant love that just emanated from her when ever she laid eyes upon him. Now, exhausted and satiated, he lay in the warm bath with her head on his shoulder, and gazed out in to the desert, content.

"I missed this." He told her and lifted a limp claw to her face. Even his hands were sheathed in a gauntlet of scales now, though his palm was still soft tan skin.

She pressed her muzzle in to it and kissed, then sighed against his skin, "I was afraid..." She admitted without looking at him, "I thought it would be like before in Jurmero. I gave up hope there, but I didn't here..."

He plucked her up from the floor with both hands and laid her in to the water, sloshing a large portion of it from the tub and sat her upon his lap. He ran his damp hand over her bare breast and left the golden skin glisten with wetness, "Did they hurt you?" He asked, knowing just what kind of person Shadow had become, and what he might have done for amusement.

She shook her head and smiled down at him, "No, aside from tending my wounds they left me alone. Though when you showed up I think they were preparing to give me away."

Del leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her stomach, just above her penile slit, then laid his cheek to her warm flesh and closed his eyes, "Good." He murmured then embraced her and never wanted to let go.

A month passed and Oren started getting queasy in the mornings. She insisted no other had touched her but Del, yet at his inspection it was true, she was pregnant. He gave a reserved expression of pleasure at the thought, but he didn't get his hopes up. She on the other hand simply glowed as week after week her belly swelled. Janet on the other hand was getting down right sick of her gravidity, fourteen months she claimed, fourteen months of wobbling like a duck. With Omolaud gone, the task of midwife fell to the next oldest meru, and she insisted the child was healthy and would come soon, Janet just sarcastically begged for a sword to cut it out.

The child was born a week later and only the assistance of the magi kept Janet from bleeding to death in the birthing bed. The child was enormous, not unlike shadow when he was born, but his eyes were amber and blue, and his scales were a straw gold with two pale jade over his left flank. Like Shadow he was a quiet child, eyes wide and watching the world with an intense curiosity. Del was there to greet the child and welcome him in to the world. When their eyes met he felt a moment of contact, diffuse warmth, not quite thought drifted within. In that moment Del left something behind, a truth as he understood it, perhaps a talisman to ward the child in his youth. It was a pearl of knowledge, to be wary of sharing too much else he might lose himself; the essence of what Omolaud had taught Del years ago and the warning of what Shadow did to himself.

Knaira was beside himself with joy, genuine pleasure radiated from him as he held his newborn son. Del watched the connection, a tenuous, trembling thing, guarded, but it was there. Janet on the other hand slept through it, the pain had been too much for her and so she had been put to sleep and would only be allowed to wake again once her body had recovered. She should not have been able to breed this late, she was nearly seventy years old, and this would be her final child to be sure. Del assisted as he could, mending her battered body, then left her in the capable hands of the magi circle.

Ch. 15 - What lies Beneath

Del woke late in the night, his mind quivering with familiar and alien potential. Again it was an echo of something else, calling to that alien part of his mind. He tried to answer, but the poison blocked him, rejected his chant. He felt strangely compelled, but could do nothing with it. Instead he did as before, following until his mind found that darkness, somewhere off to the south west, under the shifting sands.

Eventually Del sat up and focused in meditation; his probed mind around that darkness, seeking away in, to see what was there. It was a void, an emptiness in the world that shouldn't have been. Even this dead empty world, there was something. The base vibration of matter, the steady lifeless chain of wind and rain. They held no power, no purpose like they did on earth, there were no threads to guide and control. But even lifeless they still felt like something, they were the background in his mind. That void, that emptiness was something else entirely and it stood out as might a phantom limb you try to pick up a drink with.

Gently he kissed Oren upon her sleeping lips, then stroked her face until her eyes fluttered open, "Del?" she asked dreamily.

"I'm sorry to have to wake you, love, but there is something I need to do. I shouldn't be gone more than a few days, but it's troubling me." Del told her, then pressed his lips to her brow, between her horns, "I promise I will be back as quick as I can be." There was a tinge of fear radiating from Oren as he told her. He felt that fear, tasted it, let it enter him, then slowly, carefully he eased it from her mind. She was terrified of him being gone, terrified of being caught, alone, without his protection again.

At last she whispered, "What do you need to do?"

"It has something to do with the chant, I don't understand it yet, but there is something out in the desert linked to it." He replied, then climbed out of bed, "I need to talk to Knaira."

"At this hour?" Oren protested, "He will be rather annoyed I think."

Del sighed and sat back down, "You are right, I suppose it can wait." He felt like he was itching under his skin, his mind tingling with the constant vibrations from that alien part of himself. On earth it had gone away as soon as the sun crested, so too he hoped it would vanish this time. He knew exactly where in the desert it was, so he wouldn't need the constant annoying jitter keeping him in touch.

Oren's hand caressed along his spine and stopped at each scale, lifting it and touching the soft skin below before moving on. He shivered which made a soft cascade of clicks as he did from each scale raising and falling at once. Eventually Oren coaxed him back down, and he tried to relax and focus only upon her, tired as she was. Her lips met his sheath and he felt himself awaken only to be captured by her mouth. In that moment he felt a flush of embarrassed shame as he compared her touch to that of his own mother's mouth.

Her hot eyes, glowed as they stared up over his trembling stomach and the swell of his breasts. He could see the heat drifting off of her skin, wispy trails of air rising above her. His hand reached down, to caress her side and curl around her rear under the covers. She squirmed some, wiggling her rump in to his palm, then spread herself and rolled her hips as a finger found her moist entrance. She pulled away from his spire at last, it glowed in pulses, each beat of his heart making it flare as fresh blood passed through the engorged flesh. She dragged herself over him, her tight muscular body so small now in comparison to he, she could barely kneel over his waist and her gravid belly protruded over him.

She fed him in to herself, careful and gentle as she was. He sighed and arched himself in pleasure, meeting her as she lowered herself on to him. Her movements were slow and lethargic, yet her depths so hot and very tight about his increased girth. She laid down atop of him, her head to his breast, and slowly rolled her hips as her inner walls milked his ribbed length. Like that he was gently rocked to sleep by his meru, kept in a state of pleasure, distracted from the things that weighed upon his mind. In her receptive embrace he found peace once again.

Shortly after he began to snore, Oren, with a patient smile brought her Djheni to orgasm, giving him what she hoped were wonderful dreams. Then she laid herself down upon him to sleep, with his spear sheathed deep, "I love you." She whispered to him, then let herself drift off, dreaming of him. She knew herself to be simple, wanting nothing more than a strong Djheni to protect and control her, and maybe a child or two. In him she had everything she needed now, everything she wanted.

-

The air shattered with a thunderclap and in to the sand tumbled two Djheni. Del also arrived, but he landed on his feet. The air was a dusty torrent, kicked up by their arrival and a rather severe wind storm. With care He shielded the two smaller mages, one a death chanter, the other an apprentice healer. His scales protected him well from the blowing sand, but they would have been stripped to the bone in minutes. Once they had their bearings again, the two Djheni burrowed in to the ground for protection to wait the storm out.

Knaira had been intrigued by Del's new found awareness and the idea that the chant was foreign. It was common knowledge that he was not a particularly great fan of magic, but he used any advantage he had to protect his city. Del had requested assistance of the mages and these two volunteered, though they didn't quite understand what was expected of them, they were eager to learn more about the chantry.

Del had marched them out in to the desert, a short distance away from the city, and there he sat to meditate. He had done it twice, but only once fully conscious, and in truth it hadn't really been him. The teleportation took him a while to master, a few bad tries, and once they ended up in the wrong place. But that final time, they came out exactly where Del had intended, almost directly above the void under the desert. The chanters were disturbed to say the least, opening a gate was difficult at the best of times, but doing something like it, without even saying a word? He could feel their fear, wavering like a curtain around him.

As they all do, the storm passed and Del dug himself out of the sand. He found it easy, he knew the achera could simply swim through the desert like a dolphin in the sea, but he had never tried before now. It wasn't quite as comfortable for him, he lacked many of the necessary features including scales protecting his face, but he would never fear being buried alive. He also gave some assistance to his fellow Djheni, one of which had been buried rather deep as a dune shifted over him.

Once they were all settled, Del told them why they were here, "Alright, what I need you two for... I cannot reach the chantry, haven't been able to since I was captured at Jurmero. However, as you can see I've learned some other tricks. Together we need to dig down, at least a thousand feet, whatever it is that echos the chant is below us."

"A thousand feet of sand and stone?" Merek, the death chanter exclaimed, "You are mad, that would take us weeks."

With a friendly smile, Del informed them, "If it takes weeks it takes weeks, but the sooner you start, the sooner we finish. If you do not wish to help, you are free to walk home from here." Merek scowled and began to pace about while peering downward, then started to chant. Del on the other hand took a more logical look at the problem. There were only a few hundred feet of sand, but the sand shifted regularly, when it did it would bury whatever work they started.

While Merek dug, Joen'hain the apprentice assisted Del. Together they solidified the dune surrounding where Merek worked, it was a simple case of directed heat fusing sand to glass. Joen'hain provided the heat and Del wove that flow of energy in to the sand. It reminded him of the great forge, as well as dancing the wind back on earth. The energy produced by the chant was quite similar to the natural forces on earth, only a singular thread instead of the constant maelstrom of energy flows.

Once a ring of sand was glassed, they both joined Merek and together created a force of wind that bubbled the sand right up out from the hole. Deeper they went, they switched to glassing, then back to blowing until the entire tube was clear all the way to the desert floor. Del inspected the stone with curiosity, it was similar to stone he had seen before, crushed bits of coral, shells, bones--all fossilized.

"Thousands of years ago this whole desert was a sea." He told his companions as he traced the crushed outline of a massive tooth, "I've known this for a long time, but this desert is massive, maybe even larger than the pacific ocean on earth. What could have done this?"

"You mean, the world wasn't always a desert?" Joen'hain asked and knelt next to Del and inspected the earth.

Del shook his head and explained, "No, they call this sedimentary rock, you find it under oceans. For eons things die and their remains drift to the bottom of the sea. The pressure grows as more things pile up, and gets crushed in to a stone like this. I've wondered for a long time where the water went."

Merek interjected rudely, "Can we continue please?"

Del shrugged, nodded, and stood back to the side of the tube, "Chant me up some force." he told them and they compiled. With the potent strands of kinetic energy in his grasp he focused them downward, in to the bedrock. Where he thrust he cracked the stone, clean straight lines, smooth and fitted. Then chunk by chunk he carved a stair case. Each chunk he lifted free and laid upon the surface above. He had spent time in the quarry as a child, after his night terror destroyed the tower, this was familiar work, though he was rusty.

They worked well in to the night until too tired from chanting to continue. Del let them rest, though he sat up a while longer, exploring the depths below with his mind. He found a hollow far below, but it was choked with fallen rock and running calcite, no where to safely teleport in to. It did however give him a goal to work toward and mentally he mapped out the path they would take to get down.

Day by day they worked, carving deeper in to the heart of the planet. The void below him haunted his nights and teased him by day. He could always feel it, also see it in his minds eye, even when he tried so hard to block everything out. It was always there, always waiting for him and by that point he was convinced; always watching. It made sense in a way, he was emitting no chant, not even the every day babble of an active mind, the poison blocked all communication between his mind and the alien lobe. Something down there was asking for input, wondering why Del had gone silent and the closer he got to the void, the more curious it seemed to be about him.

Five hundred feet, nearly three hundred steps carved, close to forty a day. By a week in they were half way there and Del had stopped sleeping. He tried, but the constant buzzing in his mind interrupted it. It wasn't just his othersight it filtered in to, it was now affecting his thoughts, electromagnetic interference making his mind fuzzy and distracted. The other two seemed fine, though Merek's mood soured by the day. Del hoped when they reached the cave tomorrow it would be enough distraction to keep him going.

Stone slab after stone slab was wrenched from its home and tossed out on to the desert above, Then he changed tactics, digging sideways in to the wall of rock. Twenty feet, ten, five, the dusty rubble piled up below him and he took a moment to scatter it out, across the desert. Then the last few feet and a waft of cool damp air greeted his nose, "Hey! We reached a cave!" He told them, as if he wasn't expecting it.

Joen'hain poked his head in and tossed a mage light about, exploring it, "A tight fit, but it goes down, looks like it collapsed a long time ago."

Merek ignored them, pretending disinterest, but Del could feel his curiosity piqued, "Go on in Joen'hain, if we are lucky, this should cut days off our dig." The stones had fallen ages ago and rain after rain had washed calcite down, fusing the broken stone back together in a strangely alive place. There were places where it looked like molten wax, translucent when the mage light passed it. Others were long brittle fingers reaching towards their mates on the floor. The going wasn't as difficult as Del had feared, you couldn't walk upright, but it was not difficult to climb on all four.

Half way down they heard Merek join them in the tunnel, his curiosity having won out against his stubborn negativity. Deeper and deeper they climbed until Del called a halt, "Hold up..." He said, feeling faint, "I'm not feeling so good."

Joen'hain climbed up to him and took a moment to inspect him, then began to chant and explore him, "You have a storm in the mind, I can't imagine why you haven't seized by now."

"I know, it's been attacking me for days, ever since we got here." Del admitted, then laid his head back and tried to clear it, "Give me a few minutes to rest and I should be good to continue."

"No, we should take you back to Emorre." Joen'hain insisted, "If you seize, you may lose control over your body, in part or full, for good."

Del tried to calm himself, he could see the radiating patterns, like an antenna vibrating from simple proximity to a transmitter. The other two however, their minds were clear, their chantry centers only responded when they spoke and were quiet otherwise. For a moment Del thought of ripping that part of his brain out, just giving himself a lobotomy on the spot, but he knew if he did, he would never be able to chant again. Then he asked him self, 'would that be so bad?' But he tossed the idea out and began to climb again, against Joen'hain's protests.

The void was there, just below him, he could feel it, now on his skin, taste it almost. His hair stood on end, charged with static and nothing he did would discharge it. Another drop and he stood on smooth hard ground, with the collapsed tunnel above him. Joen'hain dropped next, then Merek. The mage light illuminated the chamber and Del's jaw dropped.

"What is this?" Merek asked dumbly as he stared agape.

"This is not Djheni work." Whispered Joen'hain

Del shook his head and stepped forward, toward what was obviously a door, "No, this is something else entirely." The floor was made of fitted stone tiles, but the walls were a smooth arch of metal, pitted with age and worn, but still quite sturdy. In the center of the arch was the door, ancient and tarnished black. Inset in to the door was a symbol of the sun who's radiant arms spread out like spokes and inset in to the walls, floor, and ceiling, blocking the way. At the center of it was a face, something like Del might have seen back on earth in a newage store.

He touched it with a claw, carefully at first, but there was no activity. This close he could barely sense the world, like a field was blocking out every sense beyond his original corporeal body. Behind him he could feel, like a hissing echo down a tunnel. Also the vibrations had stopped the moment he got close. His mind felt clear again, apparently whatever dampened his sixth sense, also dampened the transmission. He explored the door and found no other way in, though the sun in the center seemed a mechanism of some sort, he couldn't see in to it to determine its operation.

Merek took a step forward and butted Del out of the way, then began to chant. Nothing happened. He increased the tempo of his chant, the force behind his words. Nothing happened. He struck the sun and it rang like steel on steel, black dust fell from it, exposing a greenish shine below. Frustrated Merek stepped away and glared at it.

Del told him quietly, "Chanting won't work here, we are standing in a void, something suppressing all power." Del reached out then and traced the face in the sun, it seemed crazed, wild, its eyes wide and its grin insane. At his touch a piece shifted, one of the eyes sank in with a shower of dust. There was a creeking clank, then the eye slid out again, red instead of green. Del poked, proded, twisted, pulled and eventually worked lose a few other pieces, until he gave a hard jerk and the whole thing came off in his hands. This it seemed was not intended, the mounting point for it was corroded through.

With a shrug Del wrenched the bars free, no longer held in place by the sun, and tossed them aside. Bit by bit he tore open the door, then at last the whole thing came crashing inward, the hinges long since ruined. Inside had the air of a tomb, air not stirring in thousands of years. Strangely enough though, there was no dust and the ground was smooth glossy stone tile, the same as outside, but unworn, no pitting or etching to be seen. Joen'haim stayed outside, against the cave where he could cast the mage light, if he stepped closer to the door the light was extinguished and they would all be plunged in to darkness.

Merek and Del explored as best they could with the little light they had, but the room was just a hallway, ancient it might be, but it was nearly featureless. The walls were greenish steel, the ceiling was high and airy, with what looked like light fixtures, but there was no power to be seen. At the end of the hall was another door, this one made of simple stone and carved in writings Del could make no sense of. With great effort the two of them managed to force the door in, it ground and scraped across the stone tiles, then eventually gave way with a swing, and slammed open on the inner walls.

Suddenly there was light, a great intense beacon of it. Not just light, there was energy, energy Del understood, energy Del could feel even with his mind's eye dulled by the place. It was brilliant, blinding, brighter than he had ever seen on earth even and there was so much of it. He stumbled back and turned away, trying to block it from his sight, but the minds eye could not be blocked, "Fuck." He screamed in English and fell to the floor, clutching his head.

Merek on the other hand just stood there, staring in to the room with no problem, "What is it?" He asked, amusement in his voice.

"You don't see that?" Del cried.

"See what, an empty black void of a room? Yes I see it, doesn't much bother me though." Mocked Merek.

"In the land of the blind... the one eyed man gets it poked." Del said, then tried to sit up and ignore the screaming of his senses.

Confused, Merek asked him, "What are you going on about?"

Wincing, Del explained, "Short version? The chantry creates streams of energy that get used to do a task. I can see that energy, its a vague misty glow. Hardly anything to worry about and if you weren't looking for it, you would barely notice. Right now I feel like I am staring in to a never ending lightning strike."

Merek glanced back in to the room and stared at the emptiness. It was a spherical chamber, he could see a little bit of it in the dim light from outside. There was nothing in there that he could see, not even another door way. Del on the other hand saw other things, not just the brilliant glowing energy at the center, but structure, a bridge leading inward, toward the light. He climbed back to his feet and started forward. It was easier now, like waking up at night when some one turned the light on, at first it was painful, but eventually your eyes adjusted.

When Del took his first few steps on to that glowing field, he wasn't sure it would support him, yet it did. Behind him Merek gasped at the sight of him floating in mid air, even with a spell it was a difficult feat. Del continued inward, stumbling over the strange steps. He didn't feel like he stood on anything, but it was there, it supported his weight with absolutely no give. Near the center he found a circular walk way wrapped around the brilliant core of light. Three bridges reached in different directions, including the one he stood on. At the end of each bridge was... something.

Del approached and tried to figure out what that something was, it was circular, it had features, symbols, shapes, and it floated above the cat walk a few feet, almost at eye level with him. He reached out to it and it shimmered as his finger passed through. It seemed to be some form of console or computer, but it was well beyond anything he had ever seen and without his sixth sense he couldn't pick it apart. After a moment he made his way around the roaring ball of energy and toward another of the bridges. Behind him he heard a startled yelp that was suddenly cut off. Del turned and darted back, to see Merek standing on the bridge, looking terrified.

"Where did you go?" Merek yelled at him while trying not to look down.

In annoyance, "What do you mean? I just walked across the other bridge over here." Del responded.

Merek shook his head vigorously, "You just vanished suddenly."

Del frowned at that, then turned back down the causeway, "Well, Obviously I'm here, so I'll just be right back, alright? Just wait there, don't want you falling to your death." At Merek's nod he continued the way he had started, and made his way along the second bridge. The door he found though at that end was shattered and behind it just solid stone. He turned back and continued to the third bridge and found that door intact. This one was made of metal and rather better maintained than the previous two doors. He pulled firmly on it and it slid gracefully open, exposing the hallway beyond.

It was the same as before, green steel and stone tile, though this one seemed slightly longer. At the end he reached a similar door to the first, and this one at his touch started clunking, then slowly slid down in to the floor. Outside it was dark, but as he stepped further beyond his abilities came spilling back in. He could feel energy all around him, potent, throbbing, a world of life and potential in all directions. It took him only a few seconds to realize that he was no longer on Kuir'geirrus. A few moments more, and as his mind reached life he recognized, he was on earth.

Ch. 16 - What Plots Above

Del stood outside in the wee hours of dawn. The house was quiet, no bitching or screaming. Del climbed the steps and slipped inside. He tiptoed past the sleeping mother and in to Lily's bedroom. There he sat on the edge of her bed and gently shook her awake. She mumbled then rubbed sleep from her eyes and looked up at him, "Del?" She asked as her hand found his scaled flank.

"Yes, I found my way back. I couldn't think of anyone else here to see." He told her, then glanced up to the open door, "Would you mind if we went elsewhere?"

She climbed out of bed, naked and shuffled through a basket of clean laundry, then dressed, "You've been gone for almost a year." She whispered, "Whole area was a military encampment for weeks, what did you do?"

Del shushed her then tiptoed back out of the house with her following in tow. Once he was outside and a little ways in to the forest he turned to her again, "They found out about Oren and they already have files on the Djheni apparently. She had only just gotten back when they showed up hunting us. Are they fully gone now? Or should we go somewhere safer."

"Nah its clear, once they realized there was nothing here but some trees they took off in their fancy choppers and left us alone." Her eyes roamed Del and he felt the scrutiny of her sixth sense caressing his body, inside and out. Then with a smirk she told him, "You've changed, quite a bit sexier than when you left too. I'll be eighteen next month you know, just saying."

He had known of her interest for the longest time but never did anything about it. Now however he felt under assault as lewd thoughts crept in to his mind, potent enough to get a rise out of him. She saw it as his sheath swelled and parted and she reached a hand out toward his emerging penis. He slapped her fingers lightly and told her, "Knock it off, we have bigger things to worry about than your hormones." It wasn't that he didn't want her, in truth she was a rather attractive young woman and her infatuation with the Djheni form didn't help any.

"What? I'd make a great meru as well you know." She told him with a playful smirk.

"You would, would you? Do you have any idea what that means?" He snapped back.

Unconcerned she leaned closer and whispered with a come hither voice, "Well, you did sneak in to my bedroom and wake me up out of the most wonderful dream. You get what you pay for!"

He stared down at her, silent for a moment, then with a sigh he reached out with his thoughts and touched hers. He dipped in and fed her a line of memories, his own experiences at the hands of Djheni, as well as other meru. Trum'ran raping him, Knaira and his harem, most of whom would be lucky if they saw him once a year. Rachel, lily's grandmother wasting away after endless pregnancies and the countless children ripped from her arms while she begged for them. He even let her see his own son, Shadow, torturing him and Janet.

Lily's head hung back, staring sightlessly in to the night sky, her face glistened with tears and her body trembled as the emotional roller coaster ended. Her head at last cleared and her eyes focused on Del with a new understanding, "It's so hard for you, isn't it..." She whispered and lifted a hand to his cheek. He could feel her now, a strange sense of empathy emanating from her, "You didn't scare me away, you can't."

Del turned away from her hand and stood up straight, "I'm going to show you something." He told her, then with a moment's thought the world was ripped asunder and Del landed with Lily deep underground. The tunnels here were intact, walls of metal, hexagonal in shape. It was a complex network of passages and rooms. Almost everything in it had crumbled to dust centuries before, but there were still echos of life. One of the things he noticed were human remains, evidence of people who had lived here thousands of years before, "I think this is where humans turned the tide against the Djheni eons ago. There must have been some one like me and you, who could see the world as we do. Some one who could use this place."

"What is it?" She asked as she followed him around. He could feel her still urgent desires, but to his thanks she kept them to herself, "Use it how?" Lily continued.

"I'm not sure to be honest, but its powerful, extremely so. You may feel some pain once I open the door but don't worry, it will pass." He told her and made his way back in to the temple like chamber. As he did lights in the ceiling came on, illuminating the green and gray architecture. He pressed gently on the inner door and it opened inward silently. Lily screamed out and stumbled back as the brilliance of the inner globe washed over her. She collapsed, passed out.

He waited patiently for her to come around, but in the mean time he stepped on to the other side, across the walk way, and found Merek and Joen'haim arguing, "Hey, what's the fuss you two?" Del shouted at them from the center of the room.

His voice startled them both nearly to death. Clutching his chest Merek shook his head and glared at Del, "We thought you were gone. Where did you go?"

Del shook his head, "Nevermind that. I'd like you two to return to the surface and wait for me there. If I don't return in two days gate back to Emorre and tell Knaira what we found."

For a moment Merek wanted to protest, then defeated he nodded. Joen'haim on the other hand asked, "And what exactly did we find? An empty room with invisible floors?"

Del laughed and shot back, "I don't have a clue, but I aim to find out!" Then before they could protest he turned back and darted to the earth door and found Lily sitting up, staring with slack jaw at the incandescent energy.

"Is that... raw magic?" She asked.

"Yeah, only you and I can see it though. It's more than that though, come on." He said then grabbed her hand and lifted her to her feet. The bridge still felt strange to him, he could feel the pressure but at the same time he could feel the air under his feet and there was no texture yet it wasn't slippery. She walked uneasily as well, her bare feet finding purchase just as odd. At the center he pointed to the console like device, "This... I think--is a computer."

To Del's relief, Lily forgot completely about her lust and became enraptured with the strange technology. Together they began to piece together differences between the three consoles. The one with the broken door wasn't quite dead, but didn't seem to do much so they played primarily with that one. It responded to touch, symbols changed shape on contact but their meaning eluded them both. Day by day they worked, taking shifts exploring and learning. The tunnels were extensive but Del found little of use, most anything that might have existed there rotted away to dust thousands of years ago.

One afternoon while Lily was working, the console she was on flared to life and began flashing. Suddenly a stream of energy began to pour in from the human gate and a few wisps pulled in from the Djheni gate. The third one just flared with blue and yellow uncomfortably. She swore she did nothing to cause it and nothing she did made it stop. The core of energy in the center started to flare and grow, it wasn't perceptible at first, but eventually Del noticed the growing intensity and activity.

Both of them rushed out to the human side and found the streaming energy flowing in from every direction. It was like being caught in a drain, Del could feel it rushing through him and though he might deflect it, it always continued downward in to the aperture of the temple, "What do you think it is?" Del asked as he watched.

"Well, the energy had to come from somewhere, didn't it? Maybe this is how it's powered, coming online every so often to replenish what is spent when you chant." Lily replied, but she too felt quite a bit of discomfort from the onrushing torrent, "Maybe we should get out of here, this can't be healthy."

Del nodded to agree and stood, but then, somewhere around him he heard a strange grinding, "Do you hear that?" He asked, hushed, and reached up with his mind out of the tunnels. He found it only a hundred feet above his head, someone was drilling down toward them.

They backed away, farther from the temple and hunched back to watch. Del knew he could teleport them out at a moment's notice but he wanted to see who could have followed them here. The grinding grew louder and louder until suddenly the ceiling above the temple door caved in and a machine of glass and energy fell through, to land with three legs on the floor. It lowered further, drilling in to the ground below, then stopped as it came flush with the ground. Doors opened in its side and things came out, living things to be certain, but of all different shapes and sizes. No two alike.

Then behind the squadron of bestial constructs a single thing of gossamer beauty stepped forth. It was nearly as tall as Del, at least 8 feet tall, thin as a reed and possessing fine wings, almost like spun silk but glossy. She was beautiful... if it were a she, and she moved with the grace of a bird. In the dark she glowed, her skin seemed bejeweled with sparkling luminescence and pulsating streaks of what could only be magical potency, like traces on a circuit board. Del felt attraction but also fear, she was powerful he could tell, perhaps even exceeding his ability.

When the creature turned away, toward the temple, she spread her wings and floated, gliding forward instead of walking, in to the chamber. Quietly Del slipped down, in to the cavern. The squadron of things had followed the beauty and left the door unguarded. Inside he found her working at the human console, her fingers tracing strange patterns, leaving markings behind that stacked up in to great diagrams. Del tried to memorize it, or at least figure out what she was doing. He had no time however to muse on it as she seemed finished. She made her way around to the broken console and began to work on that one as well.

Del felt suddenly compelled to stop her, whatever she was doing that third door had been destroyed for a reason and he suspected she was intending to repair it. He started to rise and move forward, but as soon as he did the... things all turned toward him. Up close he could see them better, strange pieces of twisted flesh. Some seemed to even have once been human, but they were now like some sort of horrific experiment gone wrong. Fight or flight, the instinct peaked but before he decided there was a shuddering crash and light flared in the temple. The magical energy began to pour out, toward the third door and. The central ball of energy dimmed and began to shrink, it was like a capacitor being expended rapidly.

The third passage way was intact now, no sign of the broken door or tumbled stone behind it, behind it was a hall of glowing blue stone. Within the hallway another four or five of the angelic beings advanced on the now open doorway. Del turned and ran, catching Lily in the process. Outside the void with his powers returned he focused and reality blinked. There they stood in a clearing, on a large field stone with leaves flying around them, blasted up by the shock of their landing.

"What... What was that." Lily cried out.

"I think that was an invasion." Del said quietly.

They both hunched as a sudden explosion broke the cool autumn sky. Then another off to the right. These were distant things, high up in the atmosphere. Del could see streaks falling from the sky, brilliant white as they fell toward earth. More and more of them, faster and faster, the sonic booms arrived some time later. Towards the heavens they stared, watching the sky rain fire; like some biblical dooms day.

They both took off running toward Lily's home, crashing through the forest. The sky was bright with fire, the clouds ripped and tossed about uneven. So many streaks they were uncountable. High above Del reached as he ran, seeking the source of such fury. Never before had he tried going up, his interest in space had been limited to the jaunt through stellar physics. Beyond the atmosphere, beyond the orbit of the moon, something sat, spitting chariots of fire to earth. Del's mind slid off it helpessly, it was surrounded in another of those void fields.

Jess was on the porch looking to the sky with a slack jaw. Del only felt rancid terror seeping from her mind, none of the understanding he sought. Lily ran past her without note and turned on the TV; static. Every channel was dead, even the radio was silenced. Del shook the vile woman and tried to reach her, to push past her fear, "What happened, what is going on?"

She stared at Del blankly, then glanced up again, "The apocalypse has come." She told him, then began to pray. They took Jess's car and drove in to town. The sky still rained endless fire but no explosions dotted the horizon. No one was on the road, in fact the town was nearly deserted when they arrived. Del did manage to find Zach, manning the radio in the sheriff station.

"Zach!" Del shouted as another boom shook the town.

He looked up and for a brief moment he saw recognition and hope in his eyes, then it fell, "Del... Where have you... No, it doesn't matter."

"What is going on? I was underground with Lily, when did this start?" Del said, trying to cut through Zach's mood.

"Three days ago, they hit the capitals first, nothing left... Then they took out communications and the electric grid. An hour ago this started, I don't know, been trying to raise anyone on the radio but no one's out there. Del, I think were alone." Zach told him hopelessly.

"Whether that's true or not, which I highly doubt, we need to evacuate. Get everyone who's left to the town hall. Does the emergency broadcast still work at least?" Del demanded.

Zach shrugged and said, "Maybe, its supposed to be tied in to the radio station, but they stopped broadcasting after the other towers were hit."

Within an hour everyone in 30 miles had arrived. Those who heard picked up neighbors, even Jess got to town safely, given a lift by some one else. There were many faces he knew and a few he didn't. Most of them had seen him before in person, though the ones who didn't were too shocked to really notice.

Del climbed up on the ledge in front of the town hall and looked down at the crowd, "You all heard the call for evacuation, We are going to do this calmly, you understand? There will be a lot of confusing or scary things, but we can all agree it isn't safe here."

There were some murmured disagreements, a few thinking they should fight it out, mostly hunters who figured they could kill anything that got in their sights. Lily however jumped up along side Del and shouted at them, "They fucking took out DC, one hit, smack gone. God knows what they are doing now, can you count how many of those... things are falling to earth? They ain't gonna mean us any good. So shut up and listen to Del."

Del cleared his throat and took a moment to wait for the latest round of booms to clear before he started yelling again, "I was gone for over twenty years, on another planet. It's not kind, its not beautiful, but it also isn't here. Stay or leave is up to you, but we go, now."

He turned to Lila and held out his hand, "I need your help, or more truly your mind."

She leaned up and pressed her lips near his ear, "I'm yours, you know that Del."

He stared down in to her eyes and shook his head at that, "Fine, but first we get out of this." He touched her mind and slowly sank his thoughts in to hers. Normally he would make a single connection, maybe two, but in this moment he kept making them, over and over again until they were looking out each other's eyes, thinking each other's thoughts, feeling each other's emotions. They would likely regret this when parting, he had the skill but not the ability, she had the ability but not the skill.

The last connection made linked to her alien lobe and then he poured his will in to it. With greater understanding he knew he didn't need any ritual, just the right set of commands, commands he now had. A second passed, two, then a vortex of energy began to tear the fabric of space behind them. The crowd screamed and stumbled backward away from it as the town hall crashed inward. It yawned and sparked, air turned to vapor and poured in to it like water down a drain. Then it stabilized and Del could see a pale white tree beyond, familiar, home.

With all of his effort he screamed, "Everyone, through, now!"

He could feel it, a build up of energy far above. Somewhere up there, something had sensed this disturbance and was intending to end it. One person rushed through and was out the other side, then the crowd surged and poured through the growing aperture. Del and Lily's attention shifted upward and caught the first salvo, a point of force so potent the pulse of energy hit and splashed against it with the force of a large nuke. He had only moments to grasp what they flung at him, it was caustic, anywhere it touched his energy it burned and ate away with a fizzle of particles. His defense crumbled to nothing in seconds within the boiling cloud of plasma, far above the atmosphere.

Another build up released before Del was ready but this time Lily caught it. She shouldn't have known how but this close, this connected she took what she needed whether he wanted her to or not. He was thankful for her quick wits. Most of the town was through at that point, but something came screaming through the atmosphere. Del tried to deflect it, but it seemed to melt his force aside, yielding to it and using his own force against him. This wasn't an antimatter charge though, this was a person, sentient, aware, and extremely deadly.

In the sky their minds danced with the foe while the tiniest fraction of Del's thoughts held the gate open. He could feel them working on it, trying to close it, the energy to feed it was fading, the machine that guided the chant was turning its gaze away. Then the entire weight of the gate fell on him like a brick wall. The chant was gone, broken and useless in his mind and hers; they had shunted the power away and he was left holding the gate by his own will and the ambient energy around him. It took every thing he had to keep it from failing while Lily dueled in the sky.

The ship broke through at last as Lily fell, unconscious in to his arms. He was alone, holding her, the gate, and staring at the streak of movement that closed on him, "No..." he whispered, then mentally reached out, made contact. It was a last ditch effort and it paid off. The ship suddenly veered and began to tumble end over end. As Del watched it broke up in the atmosphere, Gforces shredding it. The last of the towns folk were through and Del stumbled towards the gate, but behind him that mind woke and steered with the last of his energy.

Del lost his grasp on the gate and it began to fizzle, the energy streaked away from it angrily, a house shattered, the sidewalk splintered and the air screamed in protest. Instead of the pure raw energy of the chant, he had used the natural forces of the world like a crowbar to keep it open. Mother nature did not approve. Behind him a lone figure fell from the burning wreckage, still hurtling far too fast, straight toward him. With his mind freed completely he grasped the dangling lines of force, like hot wires, and caught the soaring alien in mid air. It shuddered suddenly as Del electrocuted with a bolt of lightning straight out from the portal's dying gap.

Still the alien tumbled forward on the wind and followed him through as he jumped toward the dying gate. Behind him the aperture snapped shut with a screech and all that was left was a howling breeze tossing dust about. At his feet the alien lay, one wing shorn off, a leg missing, an arm, caught in the collapse though it didn't bleed. Del couldn't say he was sorry.

In his arms Lily woke with a gasping shudder, her eyes whirled back and forth as she sought out something familiar. He steadied her and whispered, "We're safe, for now. Are you alright?"

She nodded and slid down to her feet, "I think so..." She muttered and shook the cobwebs from her mind, "I feel strange." She told him.

There was a sudden cheer and Del looked up, to realize things were not quite what he expected. He wasn't in the desert oasis, in fact he was quite a ways away from Emorre, "Where..." He said, then recognized the squat black stone keep, "Jurmero." He exclaimed then glanced to the tree at his side. It was birch, that was obvious, it also sat in the center of a courtyard and the bark was stained brown near the base. This was a cutting regrown, he suspected Omo had something to do with it. Then as he lifted his head he saw the Djheni, "Speak of the devil..."

"Well, what have you gone and done now boy?" Omo exclaimed and gestured to the crowd of humans.

Avoiding answer, Del kicked the wounded alien at his feet and gestured towards it, "Does this look familiar Omo?"

Omo stepped over and peered down at the lithe creature. Up close it was gorgeous with pale white creamy skin, soft as a dove, its features delicate and fae, However it was also covered in brown trails of singed flesh from where Del had struck it. "Yes..." Omo whispered, hushed, then backed away with eyes as wide as saucers.

"What is it? They attacked earth." Del told him.

"Angulos. I never saw one myself, way before my time... but my father, he spoke of them. They were the original creators, the ones who made Djheni, Achera and Human." Then he lifted his head and stared at the crowd of humans about them, "Del, do you bring me a gift?"

Del shook his head, "Not exactly, I did not intend to end up here... but it seems you took a cutting from my tree and I my spell went awry. I was in a hurry, had to open the gate in seconds and didn't have time to properly prepare. I seek refuge for my people."

Omo's lips pursed as he stared at the gathering then up at Del's face, "Always something new when you are involved..." He trailed off for a moment, then sighed, "Very well, but I cannot do it for free, if your house is to join mine, there must be an exchange. I am not throwing the old ways away completely." As he said it there was a sparkle in his eye as they flitted from one human to the next.

Del shrank back at that, then stood straighter and turned toward the humans, "We are safe for the moment, Omo Re'o Jurmero has an offer. You will all join his house, but first there must be a... sacrifice."

One of the men jumped up in a huff and yelled, "Sacrifice? What the hell you talkin' about? We don't need his help, we can get along just fine."

Del shook his head and laughed at that, "Get along just fine? Not a chance. This world is a desert, water is rarer than gold, vegetables do not grow on the surface and the beasts will hunt you as well as you hunt them. The sacrifice isn't so bad, he just requires one of you in marriage. Think of it as a symbolic gesture of joining his house." There were more grumbles but no one rose an objection, "I will not make you, I just ask for some one to volunteer."

There was silence, a long silence as Del stared at them, not one woman stepped forward. When finally Lily turned her back on them and shouted, "Fine, selfish bitches." She then looked up to Omo and said, in perfect Djheni, "I will be your meru, I am Lily... uh... Re'o Rachel, if it pleases you. I just have one ultimatum."

Behind them Jess yelled, "Fuck no Lily, over my dead body!" She didn't know the content, but she understood the context and the tone of Lily's voice.

"Shut the fuck up mother, go suck an achera dick." Lily screamed back, then to Del asked, "What's an achera?" To which Del just shook his head in disbelief.

Omo's eyes lit up as they took in the spry young woman who offered herself, "And what is your demand, girl?"

Lily's eyes bounced between Omo and Del, then she said with a flush that spread to her ears, "My last free night I want to spend with Del."

"Hey now, don't bring me in to this." Del said, not wanting to upset Omo.

Lily huffed and punched Del in the hip, "That's my demand, you got it?" She insisted directly to him.

"Oh, I don't mind in the least, I'm sure you have many breeding years left to you." Omo replied at last, then his lips spread in a grin, "Del, what did you do to this poor child?"

Del's eyes shot heavenward and with a sigh he exclaimed, "Far too many mistakes!" For that he was again punched but this time he felt he deserved it.

Ch. 17 - Making a Meru

"It's my last chance." Lily told Del as she sat by him in the night. They had ventured out in to the desert to find some peace and quiet, a moment's respite before everything changed for her, "I've always wanted to be your meru, but Omo..." She trailed off, confused, "I know Omo, don't I?"

To that Del shook his head and told her, "No, you probably picked up some of my memories when we were fused. He was my foster mother when growing up and unless he has changed very much, I think he will be good to you." His hand reached in to the girl's hair and caught it in a fist. He brought her face up to his and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips, "You want to be my meru? Then for tonight that is what you are." He figured she deserved to get what she wanted, at least a little after what she had been through and what she would go through.

He felt her body tense and a whimper escaped her against his lips. He kissed her again and swallowed it, gulping her breath from her lungs. Her body turned and arched to him, molding herself to his side. His kiss was unrelenting, crushed lips and pulled hair as his tongue thrust in to probe her mouth. She tasted sweet, a hint of the wine she had drank earlier. Then he laid her back, breaking the kiss and reached up to the collar of her shirt and tore.

Her hands rose to cover her chest instinctively, then fell to her sides as she asked, "Why'd you go and do that?"

"You are a meru now, clothing is the domain of the Djheni. You have no need for them ever again." He told her, then began to tear her shorts open, leaving her naked in the sand.

She could feel his eyes on her, making her self conscious and ashamed. Her hands moved in again to cover herself, one over her pubic mound, the other across her chest, "Stop it, don't look at me like that." She begged.

Del snapped at her, "Silence meru, I will look at what I please, I will do to you what I please." Though his words were harsh, his face was kind, with an affectionate smile that sent a flutter to her belly. At last her hands fell aside and she let her legs fall open just a little, exposing herself to his gaze, "That's better. Now the first thing you need to learn, is to entice your Djheni. He may be tired, sore, or in a foul mood; it is your place to change his mind." He took one of her hands and laid it to his stomach pouch that housed his member.

She touched him, gently, her fingertip tracing the seam of that folded skin. Then she let the tip of her digit dip inside, feeling the moist interior, sticky and slippery. She pulled out again and brought her finger to her nose, then lips. She cringed a little at the smell, bitter, salty, a hint of urine and sweat as well as an underlying musky something that enticed her. She sat up slowly and returned her hand to his slit to explore. She again slid inside, deeper this time and found the soft head of his flaccid member. At her touch his stomach muscles quivered and his hips rolled just a touch, involuntarily.

"So sensitive..." She mused, to which he nodded.

"Be gentle, Lily. A Djheni must be hard and brutal, but inside they are weak and afraid. A meru must be soft and yielding, but inside the strength of a mountain. Between us Oren has always been the strong one." Del's hand brushed through her short hair again, then guided her head down until her nose was mere inches from his slit, "Now coax it out."

She did as she was bidden and slipped her fingers back in to stroke along the head of him. Each touch made his body clench and quickly his desire for her flared to life. With a sticky sound his sheath opened and his phallus began to emerge. Her mouth was there to catch it though she grimaced at the taste of him she did her duty and began to lick him clean. Her tongue slid behind each rib of flesh, around and under the head, and even down in to his sheath. Each touch drew more of him free until the entire spire of flesh throbbed in the warm night air.

At last he laid with arms folded behind his head, "I am erect, your duty is now to bring me to climax. How you do that is rarely up to you, but tonight I give you the choice." In truth he was rarely too demanding about how he received pleasure, a mouth, a vagina, or even a hand was pleasant enough that he would never complain.

Her head lifted high and she said with a smile, "There is only one thing I want from you my Djheni." She told him parted her thighs, "Please, would you..." She paused then added, "Is it impolite to beg?"

Del laughed and shook his head, "Some meru cry the entire way through, some scream and wail, some throw themselves at it hungry for more. I don't think it matters really."

She nodded solemnly then lowered to her hands and knees and shifted about. When she spoke again it was in a desperate pleading cry, "Then please my Djheni, breed me like a beast. Make me cry, make me scream and wail. Please Del, Please, since I first laid eyes on you I've wanted nothing more than to be yours." She stopped to take a breath, then lower, her voice trembling, she said, "Hurt me like you were by Trum'ran."

Her words brought a strangeness in him, he felt her need, a hot iron searing at his heart. He didn't want to hurt her, he was a gentle soul in truth, he wanted nothing more than to cradle her in his arms. But her lust screamed at him, he couldn't escape it so close, it was an overpowering emotion and one that echoed in himself. His mind reached out to her and drew in her fantasy. She saw herself bleeding, face down in the sand with her cunt torn and bleeding, her womb swelling with life. She saw herself eating filthy sand and drinking piss, she was depraved to the core and wanted it in a way that made Del ill. She craved destruction of herself, she wanted to be overpowered and brutalized until she hated herself.

He crawled to his knees with disgust welling in his heart. He wasn't sure he could do it, he had experienced it, he felt still the emotional scars from what had been done to him. It was true she now had his memories, his nightmares shoved upon her... but they only fed her sick fantasy as fuel to her inner fire, "Very well." He whispered and let her fantasy overwhelm his misgivings. He knew it wasn't wise but he couldn't do it himself.

Somewhere in the back of his mind an echo of Shadow welled up to the surface, a darkness he didn't know he had. In his hand her flesh tore, a claw burrowed in to her thigh. Under his sadistic lust he tore her virginity, a single quick thrust to her core. Her vagina stretched and tore around him, his girth so large she couldn't have taken it slow or fast. His free hand found the back of her neck and leaned upon her, thrusting her face in to the sand and holding her in place to smother her scream. Boy did she scream. His thrusts were quick and brutal, bottoming out inside of her with crushing force. Her tiny vagina could take no more than a half of his length.

Each thrust knocked the wind from her lungs and bruised her in places she never before knew she had. But though it was painful, though he treated her so roughly, it was just what she craved. Still in sync with her mind, he felt her lust building and latched on to it, feeding on it and letting it drive him as well. He panted and snarled like the monster that his son once was, he didn't just rape her body, he began to twist her mind, subtle ways, making her in to a duality of suffering and joy as he defiled her. Before this night she had been, in her eyes, pure and innocent, a virgin in white, he let her see herself through his eyes, a depraved little slut being forever ruined.

It didn't take long for the dual pleasures to feed on one another and bring him to climax. When he did, it was shared, her own climax peaking in sync with his, a single shared experience between twined minds. His semen rushed in to her, burning against her torn walls and staining her. Then it began to splash out, in to the sand between her legs, a flood of blood stained cum. When he was done he tossed her off him in to the sand and sat back, his penis still throbbing in the starlight.

She curled inward with a gut wrenching sob and wrapped her arms around her bruised and battered stomach, it hurt so bad she almost regretted it. His voice cut through the self centered pity fest and struck her heart, "Do you think you are done meru?" His voice was so hard and cold, it struck a note of panic in her stomach and for a moment she feared for her life.

"W..what next m..my Djheni?" She asked with a trembling voice.

He pointed to the muddy puddle of semen on the ground, "This belongs inside of you."

"Yes Sir." She said in English as flashes of Del's memories played behind her eyes, the gritty feel of sand mixed with the bile as he ate it. She felt her stomach clench in queasy spasms, but she rolled back to her hands and knees and crawled forward. The puddle was large, so much semen had poured out of her, mingled with her own blood. She leaned down and began to slurp it up, the fresh clean seed only, away from the muddy edges.

"All of it." He snapped and brought his hand down on her bloody rear, slapping it hard and gouging the skin. She screamed and obeyed, beginning to scoop great mouthfuls of mud, cum and dirt, then swallowing as best she could.

She sat back after a third swallow and groaned, in pain, "Oww... please Del." She cried as she clutched at her throat, but his hand struck her again and she fell back to the dirt to continue. She wanted this, she wanted to suffer, but when she was really here, experiencing it, she wanted to run away and cry. But his eyes on her, cold and demanding drove her on with a shiver of perverse pleasure, knowing this obedience he elicited in her heart.

At last she finished, her throat raw and dry and she was sure cut in a few places. But his eyes on her told her she wasn't done. Her expression quizzical, he nodded to his lower half, erect penis held proudly upward, "Clean me."

This she had no problem with obeying, she wanted nothing more than to feel his flesh against hers, to taste him. Inch by inch she licked the cum, blood, and sand from his stomach, penis, and thighs. She delved in to his slit and cleaned him out until she could find no bitter flavor anywhere upon him. Then when she thought she was done, he laid back and lifted his thighs, exposing his firm sex and anus. She hesitated only a moment, then obediently began to give his vulva a slow and affectionate tongue bath. Finished there she hesitated a bit longer, but eventually she just buried her face between his smooth cheeks and licked the sweat and dust from his crease then burrowed her tongue in to his rear. In truth it wasn't so bad, it smelled of fresh tilled earth mingled with fresh sweat and tasted no worse.

Once she was done she sat back and looked upon her Djheni faithfully, waiting for his next demand. For a while he did and said nothing, just laid there, savoring the afterglow of her first time. Then with a grunt he rolled to his knees then climbed to his feet and looked down at the tiny human girl below him. She was a mess and he told her as much. She only nodded and waited, patiently with a little quiver in her core still, "Look me in the eyes." He told her softly, "And don't you dare look away."

She did, her eyes began to water and she wanted to blink but she didn't dare. For the longest time he stared in to her, feeling her mind, so vulnerable and receptive. He understood Shadow, how easy it would be to twist anyone to be what he wanted. He didn't. Del grasped his flaccid penis and aimed as a rush of urine began to spill free. It landed across Lily's face and drenched her hair, trickled up her nose, and after a moment her lips parted and she drank of his bitter stream. It even puddled around her eyes and though they burned fiercely and he could see her eyelids flutter, she did not close them, just stared up at him.

Then as his flow slacked to a slow trickle, he asked her, "Was that everything you hoped for?" His voice kind.

She nodded and whispered, "Yes..." Then with tears in her eyes she pressed her face to his leg and hugged as tight as she could, "I love you Del, don't make me leave you, don't sell me to Omo, please."

He lead down and laid his hand in her damp hair, then told her softly, "You were already sold sweetheart, sold for the price of the refugees." She nodded and began to sob, her heart suddenly falling as she came down from the brutal high of their time together. He leaned down and drew her up in to his arms, then cradled her head to his chest and began to lovingly stroke her face, "Shh... This is what you wanted, what you chose."

"No..." She wailed and clung to his chest scales, "I wanted you, I've always wanted you. I just... No one was coming forward, I had to." He only held her tighter and let her cry as he carried her home. The guards gave him a curious expression as he stepped off the lift, eying the sobbing human girl, but he ignored them.

Once he reached the squat citadel he put her back on her feet and told her, "You have to be strong now, this is your life and you have many children who will need your strength."

She looked up at him, and whispered, "The first one will be yours, I know it." at that a smile broke out on her filthy face, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud.

He nodded pridefully, then told her, "Be a good meru for Omo, don't you dare reflect badly on my teaching or I shall be upset with you. Understood?"

At her nod he swatted her rear and pushed her off towards the courtyard. Many of the humans had setup a camp out there and in the early hours of the morning only a few stirred. Those who did however saw the strangest vision of Lily; she walked naked, covered in blood, dirt, cum and piss and made her way up toward the main hall of the citadel with her head held high. Not once did she spare a glance their way, perhaps they thought out of humiliation, but Del knew the truth.

Epilogue

With an unfamiliar meru at his side and the unconscious alien tossed over his shoulder Del waved goodbye to the human camp. To Omo he said, "Take good care of them, I fear this is only a temporary respite, they have a connection to this world as well."

"I will, though I'm not sure what to do with them... this many human meru in one place is a prize almost no one could resist." He told Del and leaned in, "Come by more, you must tell me of these experiences you've had."

Del grinned, then leaned in to press a kiss to Omo's lips before saying, "I think your new meru will have plenty of details to titillate you with, but to be sure, I will return. As for the humans I think it is safe to say this is the most secure place in Kuier'Geirrus for them." Behind Omo, Del could see a hint of Lily's face peeking out to watch him go.

With a nod Del stepped back, away from everyone and took a moment to clear his mind. The world sundered around him and he found himself in Knaira's hall. He landed upon both feet with a loud thud, thankfully the room had been empty before he teleported in, however he had managed to break a bench in the process. The young meru screamed her head off for nearly a minute after the terrifying jump, but at his urging she calmed down, "F...Forgive me Djheni... You had said, but I did not expect..." She tripped over herself speaking, then went silent to the sound of footsteps.

Seconds later guards rushed in followed by a wary eyed Knaira, "Forgive me for the rude entry father, but I have need of your cells, and quickly. I cannot allow this creature to wake without proper precautions in place."

Knaira stood for a moment, gaping, then nodded to a guard who took the alien from Del's arms and marched off with him, "What is it?" Knaira asked.

"Omo called it an Angulos..." Del began.

"What?!" Knaira interrupted.

"They attacked earth and we just barely escaped. They shut the chantry off on earth. I take it by your expression, you know what they are?" Continued Del.

"Legends only, no one has seen or heard of an Angulos in some eight thousand years." He told Del, then started to pace.

With a moment hesitation, Del said tentatively, "Forgive me father, but I wish to see Oren right away."

"Of course of course." Was Knaira's dismissal.

The young meru trembled a little and looked up at Del, "What should I do, Djheni?" she asked timidly as Del quickly marched from the hall.

"Come, what is your name child?" Del asked, as she ran to keep up.

Her voice rose slightly as she found her confidence again and answered, "Sonoa Re'o Omo, Djheni."

"Omo's child then?" He asked.

"Yes Djheni. The Achera showed me my path last month. I am young and strong and eager to serve you. Omo told me much of you while I was growing up. I... It is an honor Djheni." She spoke rapidly, though at least no longer tripping over her words.

At that Del stopped and turned to her, "Why is it an honor, meru? What have I done to inspire such confidence?"

Her face brightened with a blush and her eyes lowered, "Forgive me, I did not mean to presume."

His claw found her chin and lifted her face so he could look her in the eyes, "You did not answer my question."

Her blush grew more intense until he could see a tinge of pink on her smooth cheeks, "If it were not for you, I would not be here. Three of you against Jurmero, alone, and in the end you took it. You took what armies had failed for thousands of years. You also freed my father from servitude and in so doing I was born to his first meru as Liege."

Del snorted dismissively, then laughed, "Took Jurmero? I'm sorry, whatever Omo told you... We went to not take the city but simply to rescue my two meru. My beloved died, Deurak died, I was captured, imprisoned, and raped for a year. I lost my mind, nearly blanked to the fire of the achera. It took seven years for me to regain my sanity."

Sonoa insisted, "You killed the Liege of Jurmero, you took Jurmero. Father told me the truth of it, how you left immediately after, leaving the citadel to him."

Del shrugged and continued to march toward his home. Just inside the inner the gate he turned left and after a short jaunt found his home with banners flying. He walked up stairs and the meru followed behind, silently. Inside he found Oren laying in the sun with the laptop in her lap.

She glanced up and smiled, "Look what I found?" she said, gesturing to the device.

"Where are you getting power for it?" Del asked, amused as he dropped to a knee before her, then laid a hand upon her swollen belly, "Well, we can be sure its mine, can't we." He told her with a little grin. It was so large the skin looked ready to split.

Oren peered up, then glanced past to the young meru and back, "That Joen'hain fellow came to tell me of you and he seemed quite interested in it. he figured out how to charge the battery with the chant." She paused with lips pursed, then finally asked, "So who is that?"

Del gave an odd shrug and said, "Sonoa Re'o Omo. We made an exchange, Lily is now Omo's meru."

"Ohh!" Oren exclaimed with a mischievous grin, "I'm sure Omo will enjoy that..."

Del chuckled and scolded, "Now now, Lily isn't that bad." Then with only a moment's pause, "Ok yes she is."

Behind him Sonoa began to rock back and forth on the balls of her feet. At that Oren began to laugh, "Maybe you got dealt in kind." She said while looking at the young meru, "She seems as impatient as Lily."

"You might be right, this one seems to have a hero complex for me almost as strong as Lily's infatuation." Del replied, but in English.

Oren lifted her head and peered over Del's shoulder at the girl, "Hey, go fetch my skin balm." She demanded.

For a moment the girl hesitated, her eyes on Del. The moment stretched, then as he said, "Well?" she darted off and started searching the house frantically.

"Yep... Omo hates us." Oren sighed, still in English.