Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation
-- Khalil Gibran
Luca made his way towards the refreshnt tables, his eyes scanning the crowd, smiling and nodding. Don't stare too long. Don't look lost.
The small plates being passed around were unlike anything he'd ever seen.
Waiters carrying crystal platters held arrangents that defied description. Translucent spheres filled with swirling liquids that changed color as he watched. Small creatures, still alive, crawling lazily across beds of... moss. Definitely moss. Stacked towers of sothing gelatinous and iridescent, each layer a different shade of purple. Tiny eggs that pulsed with a faint inner light.
Not exactly pigs in a blanket.
A server drifted past with a tray of drinks. The glasses were tall and narrow, filled with liquid that shifted from amber to deep violet as it settled. Sothing moved inside one of them. Tentacles, maybe. Or fronds. Hard to tell.
Luca took one before he could think better of it. When in Ro.
The first sip hit him like nothing he'd experienced. Not beer or wine. This was smooth and cold, with a warmth that blood in his chest a second later. The taste was impossible to pin down. Citrus? Honey? Sothing floral that didn't exist on Earth?
Okay. That's actually incredible.
He took another sip, watching the tentacle-thing drift lazily near the bottom of his glass. It didn't seem to mind being there. Was it supposed to be eaten? He decided not to find out.
"First ti at one of Lord Velan's galas?"
Luca turned. A young Varnathi male stood beside him, maybe his age, with soft rounded ears and a pointed nose that gave his face an almost fox-like quality. His fur was pale silver along his jawline, and his eyes were a warm copper color. He held his own drink with the casual ease of soone who'd been attending events like this since birth.
"That obvious?" Luca asked.
The Varnathi smiled. "You're staring at the veleth like it might bite you." He nodded toward the tentacle in Luca's glass. "It won't, by the way. They're bred docile. Adds texture to the aftertaste."
Oh God, small talk. Sobody shoot .
"Good to know." Luca took another sip, deliberately casual. "I'm... new to the orbital. Business brought here."
"Ah, a trader?" The Varnathi extended a hand in a gesture that was close enough to human to feel natural. "Keth Morian. Import logistics."
Luca shook it. "Luca. Acquisitions."
Not technically a lie.
Keth laughed. "Acquisitions. How delightfully vague. You'll fit right in here."
They chatted for a few minutes, Keth pointing out guests. The elderly Varnathi in the shimring blue robe was a shipping magnate. The cluster of young won near the music band were the daughters of senators. The severe-looking male by the window was soone Keth's father had warned him never to do business with.
Luca tested the waters. "I heard there's been so trouble near the frontier. Military actions?"
Keth waved a dismissive hand. "There's always trouble at the frontier. Pirates, separatists, the usual malcontents." He sipped his drink. "Nothing that affects us here. The Navy handles it."
"Must be serious if they're deploying the Navy."
"The Navy deploys for everything. They have to justify that budget sohow." Keth's tone suggested the topic was already boring him. "Honestly, half those frontier colonies wouldn't exist without subsidies. If they want to complain about taxation, let them fend for themselves."
A woman nearby laughed at sothing, her jewelry catching the light. Sowhere, a string quartet played music that probably cost more per note than most people earned in a month.
They have no idea. Or they don't care. Or maybe it hasn't happened yet.
It was... normal. Surprisingly normal. These weren't monsters or mobs or System-generated obstacles. They were people. Rich, privileged people with petty concerns and social climbing and gossip, but people nonetheless.
A mory. The System's pulling this from sowhere real.
A young Varnathi woman brushed past him, her shoulder touching his as she reached for one of the pulsing eggs. She had dark fur with bronze undertones and large, expressive eyes that crinkled when she smiled.
"Sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all. "The serelith eggs are worth the reach. Have you tried them?"
"Can't say I have."
She picked one up between delicate fingers and held it toward him. "Bite through the shell. Let the warmth hit your tongue before you swallow."
Luca took the egg. It was warm to the touch, almost body temperature. He bit down. The shell cracked like caralized sugar, and sothing rich and savory flooded his mouth. It was like nothing he'd ever tasted. Earthy and bright at the sa ti.
"Holy shit," he said before he could stop himself.
Luca drifted through the crowd, sampling food he couldn't na and drinks that ranged from subli to unsettling. He talked to rchants and minor nobles, artists and administrators. Each conversation was a small window into a civilization that had spread across what appeared to be hundreds of star systems, that had built worlds like the one glittering beyond the windows.
Before the collapse. Before they lost it all.
The thought sobered him. These people, these constructs, they were echoes of sothing that no longer existed. These ones laughed and gossiped and complained about the quality of the entertainnt.
What happened to you? What broke?
He spotted her across the room.
The woman with the host. Nisede, if he'd caught the na correctly from an overheard conversation. She stood near the windows now, alone for the first ti since he'd arrived. The host had been pulled away by a cluster of older guests, leaving her gazing out at the planet below.
Gray fur soft along her cheekbones. Golden eyes catching the light. Dark hair swept up in an elaborate style. And a tail that swayed lazily behind her, the tip flicking with what looked like boredom.
There's my opening.
Luca grabbed two fresh drinks from a passing server and made his way toward her.
"You look like you could use one of these," he said, offering the glass.
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She turned, and for a mont her expression was guarded. Then her golden eyes swept over him, head to toe, and sothing shifted. Interest, maybe. Or opportunity.
She took the drink. "That obvious?"
"Only to soone who's also counting down the minutes until they can leave."
A hint of a smile. "And here I thought I was hiding it so well."
"You were. I'm just very observant." He leaned against the window fra beside her, keeping a respectful distance. "I'm Luca."
"Nisede." She sipped the drink, and her tail drifted closer, brushing against his leg. "You're new to these events. I'd rember you."
"First ti at one of Lord Velan's galas."
"My father does love his galas." She said it with the weariness of soone who'd attended too many. "All these people pretending to care about charity when really they're here to be seen." Her tail curled around his calf, casual as breathing. "Present company excluded, I hope?"
Okay. She's forward. Very forward.
"I'm here for the food, mostly," Luca said. "And the drinks. And the view." He let his eyes linger on hers a beat too long. "The view's pretty spectacular."
Her smile sharpened. "Flatterer."
"Just observant."
They talked. She complained about the expectations of being Lord Velan's daughter, the endless parade of suitors her father approved of, the gilded cage of her position. Her tail stayed wrapped around his leg, occasionally tightening when she made a point, loosening when she laughed.
He pushed the thought aside. The mission was to get access to the vault. Nisede was connected to the host. This was the play.
"My sister understood," Nisede said quietly, her voice dropping. "She was the only one who ever really understood what it was like."
Luca caught the past tense. "Was?"
Nisede's jaw tightened. "She left. Years ago. Chose a different path than the one our father wanted." She stared at her drink. "We haven't heard from her in... a long ti."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. She made her choice." Nisede finished her drink in one long swallow. "I've made mine."
Her tail unwound from his leg and she set the empty glass on the windowsill. When she turned back to him, there was sothing new in her expression. Decision.
"This party is suffocating ," she said. "I have a suite upstairs. Private balcony with an actual view, not this overcrowded fishbowl." Her hand found his arm, fingers trailing down to his wrist. "Would you like to see it?"
There it is.
"Lead the way."
She led him through corridors that grew quieter as they moved away from the ballroom. Past security checkpoints where the guards nodded at her without question. Up a private lift that humd with expensive silence.
The doors sealed and the lift began its silent climb. Nisede simply stepped in until her body brushed his, front to front, and let her tail slide slow and deliberate up the inside of his thigh, stopping just short of where his pulse was suddenly hamring.
Luca's back hit the wall. He hadn't ant to move.
She tilted her head, ears flicking, and inhaled like she was morizing the way he slled under the expensive cologne the System had dressed him in.
"Still with ?" she whispered.
Get to the suite. Find a way into the vault. That's the mission.
They erged onto a private observation deck attached to what was clearly a VIP suite. The view hit him like a punch. No windows, no fras, just a transparent do that made it feel like they were floating in space itself. The planet hung below, but out here the stars dominated. Thousands of them. Millions. A river of light stretching across the void.
She moved behind him, hands settling on his hips, chin resting on his shoulder so her breath ward the shell of his ear.
"Tell what you see, Luca."
"Stars," he replied.
"Wrong." Her palms slid forward, slow, until her thumbs brushed the waistband of his trousers. "You see what I could give you if you stayed."
The do's transparent floor showed the planet spinning far below, but all he could feel was the heat of her body pressed along his spine and the lazy drag of her tail curling around his ankle like a promise.
"I don't usually do this," she said. "Bring strangers to my suite."
"I don't usually accept invitations from won I just t."
"Liar." But she was smiling.
This is a System construct. A simulation. None of this is real.
But she felt real. The warmth of her hand through his shirt. The ache in her voice when she'd talked about her sister.
It's just a mission. Get close. Find the access. Get out.
Her other hand ca up to his collar, adjusting his tie. "You're tense."
"Long day."
"Mmm." She tugged him gently toward the suite's interior. "Let help with that."
The suite was sparse but expensive, every piece chosen with care. A massive bed dominated one wall. Crystal decanters on a sideboard. Soft lighting that adjusted automatically as they entered.
Nisede poured them both drinks, her movents unhurried. Confident. Her tail swayed as she walked, and Luca found his eyes tracking it despite himself.
Stay focused. Look for access cards. Keycodes. Anything that might get you into the vault.
She handed him a glass and clinked hers against it. "To chance encounters."
"To chance encounters."
She drank, watching him over the rim of her glass. Then she set it down and closed the distance between them, her hands sliding up his chest to his shoulders.
"You know," she murmured, "I've been wanting to do this since you walked over with that drink."
Nisede set her glass down and closed the last inch between them. Her fingers found the buttons of his shirt, undoing the top two with a flick of her fingers.
Her lips were inches from his. Her tail curled around his thigh.
Emily. Emily wouldn't—
"I want to unwrap you myself," she said, voice low and velvet. "Slowly. Until you forget every reason you walked in here but ."
His eyes drifted past her shoulder, scanning the room automatically. Dresser with a crystalline access card sitting in a tray. Closet door slightly ajar. And on the wall beside the bed—
He froze.
A frad image. Two young Varnathi won with golden eyes and gray fur, arms around each other, laughing at whoever held the cara.
The sa image.
The exact sa image that flickered on the splash screen of the encrypted datapad in his jacket pocket.
Holy shit.
Nisede noticed his distraction. She pulled back slightly, following his gaze to the photo. "That's my sister," she said softly. "Serath. Before she left."
Serath. Commander Serath Velan.
"You have co to our world. You have destroyed what we fought to protect."
"You have honor after all."
The Commander's face flashed in his mory. Young. Long, swept-back ears and soft gray fur matted with blood. Golden eyes... the sa golden eyes now looking at him with confusion.
I killed her sister.
"Luca?" Nisede's voice was uncertain now. "What's wrong?"
His hand moved to his jacket pocket before he could stop it. The datapad was there, a slim weight against his chest. He'd kept it with him since the delve. Never quite able to leave it behind.
You could walk away. Stay on mission. She's just a construct. None of this is real.
But the photo on the wall was real. The ache in Nisede's voice when she talked about her sister was real. And the Commander's last words had been about honor.
Fuck.
"There's sothing I need to show you," he said.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out the datapad.
Nisede's breath stopped.
The splash screen flickered to life. The sa photo. The sa two sisters, laughing together.
"Where did you get that?" Her voice was barely above a whisper. "That's... that's Serath's. She always carried it.
Luca set the datapad on the dresser beside the access card.
"I took it from her," he said. "After she died."
At least… that's how it happened for . I don't know if this... whatever this place is, ca before or after.
The silence stretched between them. Nisede's golden eyes, so like her sister's, filled with sothing that wasn't quite grief and wasn't quite anger.
"She's dead?"
"Yes."
Or maybe she's not dead yet. I have no idea when this sits in their tiline.
Nisede's hands were trembling as she reached for the datapad. Her fingers hovered over the screen, not quite touching.
"She was defending a base," Luca continued. "Her people. Her cause. She fought like she had nothing left to lose. She was the most dangerous enemy I've ever faced." He paused. "Her last words were about honor. She said I had it, after all."
Nisede picked up the datapad. The screen flickered, recognizing the biotrics of the family bond. Encrypted files began to unlock, filling the display with text and images.
Tears slipped down her cheeks as she scrolled through her sister's ssages. Her logs. Years of her life, her thoughts, her fears.
Luca's hand drifted to the dresser. The crystalline access card sat in its tray, forgotten. His fingers closed around it.
"You could have used this against ," Nisede said, not looking up from the screen. "You could have kept seducing . I would have given you whatever you wanted."
"I know."
"Why didn't you?"
Because I wouldn't risk Emily for a fucking System delve.
He slipped the card into his pocket.
"Because your sister deserved better than that."
Nisede didn't breathe for a full second. Her tail went still, frozen mid-curve. The datapad trembled in her hands.
Then her shoulders began to shake. A sound escaped her, sothing between a laugh and a sob, and then she was crying. Really crying. Years of not knowing, of wondering, of hoping her sister might walk back through the door soday, all of it crashing down at once.
She sank into the chair by the dresser, clutching the datapad to her chest like a lifeline. The tears ca harder now, her whole body curling inward.
Luca stood there, watching her grieve, and felt like the worst kind of thief.
You gave her closure. That's sothing.
You also killed her sister and stole her access card while she cried.
He moved toward the door, quiet as he could manage. Nisede didn't look up. Didn't seem to notice. She was sowhere else now, lost in the ssages and mories of a sister she'd never see again.
The door slid open at his touch.
He paused at the threshold, looking back at her one last ti. The datapad's glow illuminated her face, wet with tears, as she scrolled through Serath's final words.
I'm sorry.
He stepped through and let the door close behind him.
The access card sat heavy in his pocket as he made his way back toward the ballroom. Sowhere in this orbital, there was a vault. And he had a key.
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