A Curious Introduction

I am calling the first draft done. In reality, there are a lot of plot holes to close up and it doesn’t have a real ending. Mostly because everything got so tangled and I need to go back and figure out what’s actually going on before continuing, but also because I’m toying with the idea of a short story that happens in tandem behind the scenes. To nail down the details of the situation, it kind of feels like I need to find out what was happening over there to be able to write about over here. (I’m aware this probably makes no sense right now, but hopefully once the book is out, it will)

To celebrate I’m releasing a alternative POV of Kira’s confrontation with the forty three. Gus is an interesting character that showed up randomly while I was trying to plot the current book. She’s surprisingly a stubborn one, for reasons you’ll hopefully see later.

While the below scene has nothing to do with the current book, I wrote it as a way of re-introducing myself to the characters and mindset of the Firebird world. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

The Hermit

The corners of Gus’s eyes watered from the yawn she stifled as the argument below escalated, pulling her attention away from her discomfort and exhaustion to the trio standing on the amphitheater sands.

“We could force your hand,” one of her siblings was saying as Gus tuned back in.

A low angry snarl was Kira’s response. “Try it.”

How particularly Kira-esque.

Same old story. Why talk things out when you could threaten? Next would be a not so subtle prod from the forty three’s side.

“Your actions affect us all, little sister.”

There it was.

“I don’t care. I won’t walk away from them. No matter what you say.”

The air around Kira buzzed in agitation, carrying a warning as something dangerous pushed its way to the surface beneath her skin.

Gus sat up straight, suddenly a little more interested in the proceedings than she’d been before.

That was new.

According to the script, they should have gone back and forth a few more times before Kira stalked off in a fit of pique. Her primus should never have made an appearance unless she was physically threatened in some way. And then, only if she, or someone close to her, was in mortal peril.

This level of anger wasn’t normal for Kira. She should have been begging at their feet for help saving their niece.

That’s what Gus would have done in her place. Prostrated herself in hopes they’d take pity. Promised everything and anything they wanted regardless of her intentions on following through.

It’s what Kira had done when Elise was taken.

This was alarming. At a time when Kira needed them most, she was doing her damnedest to shove them away.

Where was the other’s control?

While impetuous, Kira wasn’t reckless.

Gus’s curiosity was so great that she found herself doing something that she very rarely did. She cracked open that part of herself that she’d always kept carefully hidden. Not just from her old masters but from the universe and her siblings as well.

Sometimes even from herself.

A thousand whispers flooded her mind. Dozens of secrets spilled in an instant. Most irrelevant to beings capable of complex thought processes. But on rare occasion, a very few proved interesting.

Gus sifted through the voices’ fleeting feelings of pleasure and awe as moonlight pierced the bank of clouds overhead to bathe the ruins of the amphitheater in soft light.
She ignored their stories of the far distant past when this planet was still inhabited by a race bearing a lot of the physical characteristics of the Haldeel. She let the tales of the rise and fall of a civilization before a mass exodus flow past her.

Sinking deep into the flow of voices, Gus emptied her mind and waited.

There.

What was that?

Oh. Oh my. No wonder Kira was so out of sorts.

She’d been too harsh on her youngest sister before. Rather, Kira was showing admirable restraint, considering the stakes.

Gus came out of her meditation to focus on the drone floating idly above Kira’s shoulder. She wondered if any of her other siblings realized something was drastically wrong with Jin.

No wonder he hadn’t seemed like himself. The part that made Jin, Jin—his soul as some cultures would call it—was missing.

There was a hint of pity in Gus’s eyes as she studied Kira.

You poor, unfortunate woman. What a dangerous game you’re playing.

“This is your only warning. Stand in my way again—and I’ll treat you the way I would an enemy.”

With her threat delivered, Kira stalked out of the room. The drone following with jerky movements that were nothing like the smooth operation of their youngest brother’s.

“Ahh, there she goes again,” Wrath crooned, pulling Gus’s attention away from Kira and Jin’s departure.

“Should we drag her back? There’s enough of us. We could probably do it,” Iris drawled.

The emperor’s Face bared his teeth in a threatening smile. “I would advise against that.”

He knew Kira’s secret.

At least, Gus thought he did.

Her gaze moved to Pallas sitting nonchalantly in the stands. Did he?

Gus suspected not.

None of the forty three did.

What a sad commentary on the state of their relationship with their youngest sister. That Kira hadn’t trusted them with such explosive news.

Then again, in Kira’s place, Gus didn’t think she would either.

As unified as the forty three pretended to be, they were anything but. Gus didn’t know when it had started but factions had begun forming. The forty three were no longer those lost waifs who counted on each other for survival.

Not that Gus had ever been included in that. Considered the weakest among them, she stood on the outside looking in.

She’d always been okay with that. Sure it was lonely sometimes, but she thought that was preferable to all the scheming and jockeying for position.

In fact, Gus rather liked the status quo. Better to be overlooked and forgotten rather than noticed and toyed with. Your bones shattered and your spirit broken.

Ryan stirred among his shadows, drawing Gus’s attention to the fact that she’d missed some of the conversation.

“We’ll put it to a vote,” he said.

As always, he started with their strongest.

“Alexander., what’s your opinion?” Ryan asked.

Their brother glanced at Selene, seeking her approval as always.

For a moment, Gus was enthralled with the way the air between the two seemed to spark and glow. A rosy warmth radiating from them.

She was inexperienced in such matters, but she thought that feeling they always gave off when in each other’s vicinity was love.
A form of it anyway.

“My decision was made months ago. The forty three face a new paradigm. I am willing to see where Kira’s path leads us.”

Ryan didn’t ask him to explain his position, already moving onto the next person. “Marie.”

“Against.”

“Cole.”

“I have no opinion one way or another at this time. I reserve my vote.”

After that, Ryan didn’t call out any more names. He didn’t need to. With a few exceptions, the forty three answered according to an order established long, long ago.

Gus was the last to give her answer.

“For.”

Silence fell.

Gus pretended not to notice as several of her siblings looked back at her in surprise. Even through the shadows he was hiding in, she could feel the weight of Ryan’s stare, his confusion and curiosity sending a nervous feeling fluttering through her stomach.

She did not like being the focus of his attention.

Actually, she didn’t like being the focus of any of them.

Swallowing hard, Gus spared a brief moment to be grateful for the foresight that had compelled her to dawn the mask she kept on hand for occasions such as these.

The mask was a little more ornate than a gathering like this strictly called for. Careful contouring gave the impression of a bird’s beak. The raised swoops and swirls along the forehead and cheeks made more elegant than it deserved. It covered the entirety of her features. The only thing left visible were her eyes which were the pale green of a dewy morning.

Before arrival, it had seemed like an unnecessary precaution since everyone here knew what she looked like.

Or at least they had. At one point.

It had been years since she’d shown her face to the forty three. So long that some of them whispered that she must be hiding hideous scars. Otherwise, why else would she go to the trouble of concealing her features?

With the emperor’s youngest Face in attendance, a man she only knew by reputation but who was said to be both calculating and ruthless, she was glad she’d taken precautions. The mask coupled with the head-to-toe cloak that covered her entire body would hide any identifying traits, making her more difficult to hunt later.

Graydon was not a man she wanted on her tail. Unlike the rest of her siblings, Gus didn’t have many natural defenses.

Her skill set lay in a, let’s say, alternative, direction.

That made her no less dangerous, but she didn’t want to test that assumption.

Better to be a ghost. It was safer that way.

Gus liked safety.

Something that felt like it was in critically short supply now that all eyes were on her. Quietly, she cursed the impulse that had compelled her to step in. It would have been safer to maintain the status quo, but memories of a boy with eyes the color of sun drenched daisies and the way they’d sometimes danced with laughter on very rare occasion had kept her from burying her head in the sand.

Damn it, she wasn’t built for the spotlight. She faded into the background. She didn’t stand out.

Luckily, her siblings lost interest almost as quickly as they’d gained it. Their attention turning to the negotiation with the emperor’s youngest Face.

Gus let her shoulders slump the faintest bit. The only outward sign of her relief.

Thankfully, things wrapped up quickly after that.

No surprise—Pallas was chosen as the forty three’s representative to keep Kira in line.

Gus wished him luck. Their youngest sister’s tendency to buck against authority was the most predictable thing about her. She didn’t like being told what to do. For any reason. Even her safety. It made Gus wonder how a man like the emperor’s Face, someone well known for his tendency to manipulate and control those around him, managed to entrap Kira.

Not that it was any of her business. She was never going to have occasion to find out.

Gus rose, gliding down the stairs to the exit she’d scouted ahead of time. The rest of the forty three milled around. Either taking the rare opportunity to socialize and catch up with each other’s lives or to jockey for dominance to see if anything had changed in the intervening time.

Wanting no part in any of it, Gus kept to herself as she reached the bottom. She entered the great hallway that would have once been used by audience members to gain access to the stands. Gradually, she made her way to the back of the complex where one of the exterior walls had partially collapsed, allowing sand and other detritus from outside to blow into the building.

“Going so soon?”

A woman, her face heavily painted in a manner resembling the jesters of a different age, stepped away from the wall.

Gus stopped short, suddenly on guard. “Thea.”

Of all the luck.

Gus’s gaze traveled from the woman to the wall.

Her reappearing act was an illusion. One of the many tricks in Thea’s bag. Gus could even tell how she’d done it. In this case, she’d manipulated the wave lengths of light, bending and refracting them around her to render herself effectively invisible.

What she did wasn’t even that hard. Any of their siblings could have done the same.

Well—maybe not Kira.

But the rest—definitely. Even Gus whose pool of ki was pathetically small when compared to the others could have managed. It would have drained her, depleted her ki reserves so completely that it would have taken hours to recover, but she could have done it.

Yet for some reason Thea thought her little illusion made her better than Gus. As if her simple parlor trick was a feat deserving of worship.

The forty three weren’t a fan of being lorded over or made fools of. Particularly when those feats amounted to little more than sleight of hand.

Thea never managed to figure that fact out which was why she was merely tolerated by the rest of the forty three.

“What do you want?” Gus asked.

She couldn’t say what about Thea’s presence made her so apprehensive. The forty three weren’t a threat to each other.

At least that was how it was supposed to be.

In reality, Gus knew that was a fantasy. Life and circumstances had a way of challenging your most closely held beliefs. The ties of yesterday coming loose if not reinforced through affection or some equally strong emotion.

Eventually, the forty three would drift away from one another. The same way the Tuann had in the thousands of years since they’d gained their freedom. A race that was once wholly united fracturing into what had come to be known as the Great and Minor Houses.

As the humans would put it—death by a thousand cuts. Choices, often simple and seemingly unimportant at first, stacking up to lead to forking paths that eventuality resulted in you standing on opposite sides of an un-bridgeable divide.

The strange thing was that Thea set off the same instincts of self preservation in Gus that the strongest of their siblings did. Siblings like Ryan. Alexander. Pallas. Even Kira.

Thea shouldn’t have been anywhere near the same level as them. But there they were. The world didn’t lie. If it said Thea was a danger to her, then she was a danger.

And right now, it was whispering to be careful around this so called sibling of hers.

“Just curious is all,” Thea purred.

With the heavy face paint masking her features, it was hard to read the other’s expression.

Gus stayed quiet, using her silence like a weapon in hopes Thea would reveal her intentions without her having to go through the effort of small talk.

It worked too.

Thea’s head tilted, her creepy expression unwavering. “You never voice an opinion at these things. Is the hermit finally coming out of her shell?”

Under the veil of her cloak, Gus touched the vials of poison she kept on herself at all times. Her own version of a protective measure. The poisons were ones she’d created herself. Collected from the most toxic and venomous plants and animals she could find.

It was a hobby of hers. Seeing what she could make. One none of her siblings, including Thea, were aware of.

“Tell me, sister—what about Kira’s plight made you use that mousy little voice of yours?” Thea asked.

Reading the danger in her tone, Gus moved her hand from the vial she was fingering to one that was a little more lethal.

This particular poison had just been refined a few days ago. She hadn’t had a chance to test it yet. It was a painful concoction that she theorized would cause someone’s lungs to fill with fluid. Death would be slow and agonizing as they drowned in their own blood over the course of a few days.

And, of course, she was immune.

Thea’s front brushed the edges of Gus’s cloak as her voice lowered threateningly. “Cat got your tongue?”

Gus slid the vial out of its hiding spot.

“Is there a problem here?” Ryan asked.

Seeing his approach out of the corner of her eye, Gus put the vial back where it belonged, tugging its covering over it. Even though Ryan couldn’t possibly see through the fabric of her cloak, it made Gus feel better to know that the vial was tucked out of sight and fully hidden again.

Although his question was posed to both of them, Thea was the one who received the full force of Ryan’s attention. It was like Gus didn’t exist. Like she wasn’t even standing there.

Ryan never moved his gaze from Thea as he stopped a few feet away. Gus moved her eyes away from him, unable to withstand the blistering corona that roiled around his form. The seething mass as bright as a star.

As always, his presence made Gus uneasy. She withdrew as she tried to make herself as unnoticeable as possible.

Thea’s laugh sounded like bells. “Such a gallant protector. No need to worry though. The hermit and I were just catching up.”

Ryan didn’t say anything, his silence acting as a cudgel.

Under its weight, Thea’s mocking smile gradually faded, her head dipped, her manner more respectful than it had been when it was just her and Gus.

“I hope I didn’t offend,” Thea pouted at Gus.

With both of them looking at her, Gus had no choice but to nod once to show there was no hard feelings.

“Oh good,” Thea drawled, her attention already moving beyond Gus to where a few of their siblings had gathered at the end of the hallway to watch the show. “The last thing I want to do was to scare our recluse back into her den.”

With that, she bounced past them toward the three waiting for her. Wrath glanced in their direction and said something as Thea got close. Thea’s laugh tinkled in the air as she cast a mischievous look in Gus and Ryan’s direction before turning back to her companions and responding.

A moment later, the three oved away.

“What did she want?” Ryan asked.

Without Thea there, Gus now bore the weight of his full attention. His orange eyes, a unique shade that Gus had never seen on anyone else, pinned her in place.

Gus was respectful, diffident almost, as she responded. “To know why I voted the way I did.”

There was no point in maintaining her silence. The same tricks that worked on Thea would never work on Ryan. From previous encounters, she knew he wouldn’t let up until he got a response. He’d be annoyingly patient and obnoxiously persistent until she gave in.

He was the only one who didn’t let her get away with her reticence. Often dragging her out of her self imposed isolation whenever the fancy struck him.

It was the most irritating thing about him and one of the many reasons she avoided him as much as possible.

Damn Thea for waylaying her. If not for her, Gus would be long gone. Not having to deal with this sometimes annoying, always terrifying, brother of hers.

“I’m curious to know that myself.” Ryan regarded her thoughtfully. “You don’t typically involve yourself in our matters.”

“And I haven’t now. It’s a vote. Nothing more. The same as countless others.”

“You’ve never cast one before. You’ve always abstained,” Ryan pointed out. “What’s changed?”

Gus clammed up. She wasn’t going to answer that.

Seeing her refusal, Ryan moved closer out of interest. “Is there something I should know?”

There was, but Gus wasn’t planning on being the one to tell him. He could figure it out himself. He certainly had enough spies on his side.

“By the way, I have a job for you.” Ryan smiled at the sharp look Gus gave him, his expression lazy and indulgent. “You’re not thinking of turning me down, are you?”

“Of course not.”

The only thing worse than being tasked with one of Ryan’s missions was turning down said mission. It would be less annoying in the long run to just do what he wanted.
For a brief moment, she yearned for the isolation of the shipping container she considered home. She craved the solitude and comfort of her bed.

Alas, that would have to wait.

“What do you want me to do?” Gus asked.

Maybe while she was out she could pick up another plant for her collection.