CHAPTER 10

"Now that's wrong," she said hotly. "Where was this? Durham?"

"What does it matter?" he asked.

"Humans have rights, Jason," she said with surprising vehemence. "You're citizens of the Imperium, and that means even though you're subject to its rules, it also means that you enjoy its protections. There are rules against soldiers doing that. Not even a noble can barge into a person's house and take everything."

"That doesn't seem to stop them," he said mildly. "That kind of thing happens all the time."

"This is why the Marines are here," she said hotly. "To put a stop to that kind of bullshit."

"You need the Marines to keep the nobles in line?" he asked.

"Nobles do what they want, so long as they stay within the law," she answered. "The Marines are here to make sure they're doing the Empress' will. We also make sure they obey her laws. I think that the Marines up in Maine aren't doing their jobs very well. We'll just have to see about that," she said in a nasty tone.

"What can you do?" he scoffed.

"My aunt is the general in command of all Marines in North America," she answered. "How do you think my squad got transferred to New Orleans? I asked Aunt Lorna for a transfer. I'll tell her about this, and she'll put her foot down on some necks."

"Don't cause trouble for my friend," he warned.

"You don't even have to tell me her name," she said. "Aunt Lorna will get to the bottom of it. And since your friend never said a word, then she's perfectly safe."

"Heh," he snorted. "So even among Faey, it's not what you know, it's who you know."

"Probably even more so," she agreed. "The Imperial military is really the only place a commoner can get any real power, because the nobles control everything else. By law, nobles can't hold high command positions in the Imperial arm of the military, so most of them don't even bother enlisting there. It prevents nasty betrayals if a noble goes rogue, so they can't have people in positions in the Royal arm of the military to disrupt things. They have their own private armies and navies, and that's where they usually end up doing their commanding. But the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines are commanded by commoners. That's how my aunt came to be a General."

"Couldn't she pull strings to get you into engineering?"

She shrugged. "She's been trying," she answered. "But I want a Royal Navy position, not a position in some noble's fleet. So the competition's a little tougher. If I was alright with getting any engineering position, I probably would have found one by now."

"Oh."

"You'd like my Aunt Lorna. She's an old warhorse, but she's funny," she smiled. "She's up in the command center in Washington, but she said she might come down to see me next month. I'll have to introduce you."

He said nothing to that. If he had his way, they wouldn't be seeing each other again after tonight.

"Well, I'm done, and so are you, so let's go ahead and head over to the theater," she prompted, looking up to find the waiter, then raising her hand and snapping her fingers imperiously.

He would have preferred avoiding what was coming, but there was no hope of that. So he simply got into the limo with her, and it started towards downtown.

"Don't worry too much about what to do at the theater," she told him. "All you have to do is be polite. That's all. You don't have to act any special way or anything, but there are a few things you have to understand before we go in there," she told him seriously.

"As in?"

"First, remember that among my people, I am the dominant gender," she winked. "That means that, if you think in human terms, I'm supposed to do all those things that men do. I'll hold the door open for you, I'll help you get seated, I'll lead you if we dance, and so on. When we walk, it's customary for the man to put his hand on the woman's forearm or elbow. Instead of you offering your arm, I'll be the one offering mine," she smiled. "There aren't any real rules about how men act, but it's considered good manners for a man to defer if a woman starts to speak. But I don't think you're worried about how cultured they think you are," she said with a chuckle, then she turned serious. "But the one thing you can't do is argue with me in public, alright? If you don't like what I ask or suggest, you're free to let me know, but don't be combative. I'm going to be very careful to try to avoid any situations like that, Jason, I promise, but if you start getting offended or don't like what I'm saying, don't get bitchy."

"Well, there goes my evening," he said mockingly.

She laughed. "I know, it's just ruined," she agreed with an outrageous smile. "When we get there, we'll have to cross the lobby to get to the auditorium, and there's going to be Faey there talking. Faey love to gossip and chitchat, so they always get there very early so they have lots of time for it before the function begins. I might have to stop once or twice and greet people, since it's considered good manners to do so if you're invited. If we do, you're not going to understand what's going on very well, because you're not going to hear the telepathic side of the conversations. Sometimes Faey just stop talking and send in the middle of a sentence, or one person is talking while the other is sending, so you only get half of he conversation. Most often, Faey will speak in the presence of humans, but not all of them will. Some Faey hold humans in contempt, as I'm sure you've noticed."

He nodded without a word.

"Well then, that's all you need to know," she told him, reaching out and putting her hand on his forearm, then patting it. "We'll suffer through the opera, then go somewhere and get a drink before we go home."

"Remember, I have classes tomorrow," he reminded her. "We can't stay out too late."

"Jason, believe me when I say I want to get through the opera and nightcap as quickly as possible," she said with a slight, dangerous little smile.

He wasn't sure he liked that or not.

They reached the Saenger Theater a few minutes later. The original Saenger had burned down two years ago, during a riot that erupted when the Faey first arrived, so the Faey had rebuilt it into their idea of a theater. It was still the same size, but it was a black building with no sharp corners, only rounded ones. There were a set of doors in the side facing Canal Street, as people passed in front of it on their way to other places. There were no Faey standing outside, but then again, it was too hot to stand around outside. The limo pulled up, and Jyslin got out, then reached in and helped him out with a smile. He got out and closed the door, and she led him in through glass doors that opened of their own volition. The lobby within was very large, and it was done in soft earth colors. The carpet was a soft maroon red with little white diamonds intersecting in geometric patterns through it, and the walls were panelled in what looked cedar or redwood, some reddish hued wood that gave the walls a warm glow, with no decorations or artwork hanging upon them. The ceiling was covered with thousands of pieces of stained glass that had very faint lights behind them, making them glow with a riot of color that was quite pretty. There were three huge crystal chandeliers hanging from that ceiling, each radiating light from hundreds of small lights shaped like candles, refracting and reflecting off the crystal shards hanging among them. The doors to the auditorium were on the far wall, and unlike a movie theater, there was no concession stand. There was only a small booth to give information, and humans dressed in red uniforms milled about.

It was nice, very nice.

Scattered through the lobby were about a hundred Faey, all dressed in elegant formal wear. Women wore gowns of every color imaginable, some plain, some almost guady, and all of them had their hair done up elaborately. Jyslin looked positively plain compared to most of them. Some were dripping with jewels from their fingers and throats and ears, and as he got a closer look, he saw that the Faey seemed to have no concept of the idea of a high neckline. Every single dress exposed cleavage to some degree, and a few of them were so deep that more blue-skinned breast was revealed than concealed. Jyslin's gown was rather modest compared to most. The men all wore simple robes of various colors, each of them a similar style, making all the men look strangely similar. Some men had jewelry and some didn't, some wore strange flat-topped hats that flared out towards the top and some didn't, but almost all of them wore simple sashes around the waist. There were blue ones, red ones, and gold ones, and they had to have some kind of meaning that Jason couldn't quite fathom.

There weren't only Faey in that lobby. There were a sparse scattering of humans, men in tuxedos, women in tasteful gowns, and a few wearing clothes that were nice, but weren't utterly formal. He wondered what they were doing here, at least he had a good excuse to be here. Something told him that these were the ones who had managed to buy their way into affluence with the Faey regime, the rich and powerful, or those who worked with the nobles as liaisons, helping them understand the nuances of human culture and behavior so as to better keep control.

The sell-outs.

His headache flared back into life rather quickly, and he put a finger to his temple and rubbed it as they descended into what he considered to be a pit of vipers. These weren't Faey like Symone, and Jyslin. These were true enemies, he could just feel it.

They got about halfway across the lobby when Jyslin stopped and detoured to a group of five Faey. Three were women, two were men, and all of them were rather young. He recognized the three women. One was Maya, and the other two women were in Jyslin's squad. All three wore very simple, unadorned gowns of soft colors, cream, a soft brown, and subdued blue, and all three were quite low cut. One of those two he didn't know was quite familiar to him; she was one of the two whose armor he had destroyed, and who had followed him around naked for the remainder of the day.

"Jason, you know Maya," Jyslin introduced as she reached them. "This is Zora, and this is Sheleese. This handsome fellow here is Vell, Maya's husband, and this is Oren, Zora's husband."

"You looked better naked," Jason told Sheleese bluntly.

She laughed heartily. "I thought you'd recognize me, though I figured I might have to pull down my bodice to remind you who I was," she winked.

"Sheleese told us all about that," the Faey man, Vell, told him with a chuckle and an extended hand. "I've heard a great deal about you, Jason. I think we really need to talk sometime," he said with a smile.

"Talk?" Jason asked defensively.

"That's all he does," Maya said with a teasing smile at her husband. "Talk talk talk talk talk. My husband dabbles quite a bit in philosophy," she told Jason.

"I didn't think they'd let you bring your husbands here," Jason said in a little surprise.

"Why not?" the other man, Oren, challenged.

"Well, this isn't exactly friendly territory for Faey."

"Of course it is," he said boldly.

He didn't miss Jyslin's warning look at Oren to back off, and the man cleared his throat. Jason was about to excuse himself to go to the restroom, but he felt one of them brush up against his mind, finding the false front of repetitive thought that he kept there to prevent them from looking into his mind. Nonplussed, he felt that touch start reaching around the edges of his false thought, trying to find a way through. He'd already had a headache, and that alien force on his mind only made it worse, turning it into a pounding that he could see behind his eyes. "If whoever's doing that doesn't stop right now, I'm going to punch all five of you in the nose," he said in a growling tone, putting the palm of his hand to his temple.

"Vell!" Maya said reproachfully, slapping him on the shoulder. And she wasn't gentle.

"I must say, that's quite impressive," Vell said, unphased by his wife's admonition or Jason's rather graphic threat. "It's the strongest defense I've ever seen in a human. I just had to see if you'd learned how to anchor it to keep someone from worming through the edges."

"Vell, I told you not to do that!" Maya said in exasperation. "I specifically told you that Jason doesn't like it when we do that!"

"You expected me to obey you?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

She gave him a very ugly look. "We'll talk about this when we get home," she said in an icy manner.

He grew rather contrite very quickly, and gave Jason an apologetic smile. Then he winked. I'm sorry if I hurt you, but don't read anything into what I said to my wife. I just like to tease her.

He was surprised that he had heard that inside his mind, for Faey supposedly couldn't send to humans in the manner in which he had just sent. They had to get a foothold inside a human's mind to pass telepathic messages to them, and Vell did not have such a connection to him. Oddly, though, his headache eased somewhat.

"Good Azra," Sheleese said quickly. "Jason, your nose is bleeding!"

Jason put a finger to his upper lip, and felt sticky warmth there. "Huh," he mused. "Where is the restroom? I should clean up."

"Just over there," Jyslin pointed to one of the side walls.

"I had the same problem when I first came here," Oren told him. "It's something in the air that was making my nose bleed."

"I'll be right back," he told Jyslin, looking around at them. They all didn't look too concerned, but Vell was giving him a surprised, somewhat speculative look.

Jason decided right then and there that he wasn't quite so sure about this Vell person.

"I'll wait right here for you," she replied, putting a lingering hand on his shoulder.

The nosebleed only lasted a moment or two, and had more or less stopped by the time he got to the bathroom. His headache had eased considerably, though. It was odd…maybe he'd had some kind of sinus pressure or something, and the nosebleed had eased that pressure. He'd had sinus problems for a couple of weeks after he came down here, and just as Oren mentioned, he did have nosebleeds during that time. Maybe the heat was starting to get to him, making his sinuses flare up again. Or it might have been coming out from the heat into the air conditioning of the theater. That could have done it.

After cleaning up and using the restroom, he went back out to find Jyslin. He hoped she'd just take him to their seats. He moved towards where they were quickly, but someone boldly stepped into his way. It was a Faey woman, regally tall, even taller than Jyslin. She wore an elaborate gown of dazzling white and silver, with a frilled ruff along a very deep neckline that showcased an impressively full bosom and clung to her narrow waist and curved hips appealingly. She had a sharp, attractive face with large green eyes, and her blonde hair was done up in an elaborate weave of locks that ringed her head before spilling down her back in a swaying tail. Around her neck was a web of small diamonds that fell in a triangle down to the edge of her cleavage, the small jewel at the point of that triangle nestled snugly between the top swells of her breasts.

"You are the human who gave the Marines all that trouble," she announced in an arrogant manner that made him immediately dislike her. "Perhaps they should have taught you your place more effectively."

Without even thinking about what he was doing, he drew himself up to his full height and glared down at the woman. She was tall, but she was nowhere near his height, and he used that size and his larger frame to physically intimidate the slender woman. "Perhaps your mother should have turned you over her knee more often when you were a child," he returned.

What came next was not a brushing, was not a touch, but was more like a lance of power that sought to tear through his defenses and penetrate him to the very core of his mind, to lay bare his every thought and memory, to take from him anything and everything that she pleased, to lay bare his darkest memories, his deepest desires, his greatest fears, to know the utter truth of him. He reacted quickly to this attack, understanding that he could not directly stand up to her impressive mental power. So instead of resisting her, he simply withdrew completely from himself, from his own mind, effortlessly descending into an unthinking state that left his mind little but an empty shell. The trick here, he'd learned, was that the Faey had to have something to grab on to in order to find the rest of his mind. He let her in, then simply withdrew everything away from her, forcing her to wander around in an empty mist that hid his mind from her power. She found out quickly that she could put herself as deeply into his mind as she pleased, but there was absolutely nothing there for her to see, nothing for her to touch, and no way she could latch onto his mind and force him to obey her. His mind was an empty void, and the edges of that void pulled away from her every time she tried to get past it and get herself into his mind.

It wouldn't last long, and he knew it. She was pushing deeper and deeper, starting to push away his deception, starting to reach towards the deepest, most private of his thoughts and memories. He reacted out of pure desperation, realizing that if he could feel her, if he could sense her presence in his mind, maybe he could do something about it. He locked in on that sense of her and pushed, and he pushed with absolutely every fiber of his being. He pushed away from the center of his being, driving her before him, forcing the sense of her away from the core of him. He felt her rock back on her heels—mentally, at least—and push back, but he had too much momentum. She lost more and more ground, until she was again forced out to the edges of his mind.

Once he was certain that she was suitably ejected from the recesses of his mind, he put something out there for her to see. It was an image of her, wearing nothing but leather knee-length boots, being sexually gratified by a jackass.

She instantly flushed, and her expression turned dark as an outraged snarl marred her attractive face. She must have been mightily upset and put out of sorts by his brashness, for instead of trying to attack him with her telepathic power again, she reared back a hand and tried to slap him across the face. That outrage became shock as he whipped a hand up and caught her hand before it reached him, creating a loud smack that caused her hand to instantly stop. He closed his fingers around her hand quickly and held it absolutely rigid. The single male Faey who had been accompanying her stared in awed shock as Jason held the woman's hand absolutely still, as the muscles in her arm flexed and bunched as she tried to pull away from him. He felt her gather herself to try to overwhelm his mind with her power, but he closed his grip on her fingers, which caused her to gasp in pain.

Without saying a word, he pulled her hand down from his head with raw physical power, as her arm continued to struggle to resist his strength, until he had her hand down by her waist. Then he pulled it up and down in a mocking version of a handshake. Then he leaned in close to her ear. "If you try that again, I'll rip off your arm," he promised in a low tone that conveyed every bit of his own outrage. He loosened his grip slightly, and she ripped her hand away from him as if she'd stuck it in a fire.

She glared at him, but her expression slowly softened, until she actually smiled. Then she laughed.

Faey!

"Now I see why you gave them so much trouble," she said approvingly, shaking her hand before her. "Enjoy the opera. Varn," she said imperiously as she turned and sauntered away. The male Faey stared at him for a moment, then scurried after her.

"Why can't you be more like him?" she demanded in Faey as they merged with the crowd.

"I can be commanding, dear," he said in a placating tone.

What in bloody hell was that about?

"Are you out of your mind?" Jyslin hissed at him in disbelief as she came up to him, grabbing his arm in a very tight, almost painful grip. "I told you to stay out of trouble!"

"She started it," he said pugnaciously.

"You dink, you don't argue with them!" she hissed in a very low tone. "She's a noble!"

"A noble?" he asked. "She certainly doesn't look, well, noble."

"She's a Zarina," she said in hushed tones, hustling him towards the auditorium. "Zarina Marci Trillane. She rules what used to be Jefferson, Saint Bernard, and Saint James Parishes. She's responsible for the rice and sugar farming that they do down there."

"What did she do?" she asked curiously as they went through the doors and into the large theater proper.

"She tried to invade my mind," he said stiffly. "And I mean all the way. I know how to avoid that, so I did that, then I put an image of her being screwed by a donkey out where she could see it. That made her try to slap me."

"She did, huh?" she asked, pursing her lips. "How did you avoid it?"

"The same way I hid from you," he answered. "If you can't find anything to look at, it doesn't matter how deep you can get into my mind. After she started pushing in past that, I felt where she was in my mind, and sort of pushed her out."

"Pushed her out?" she asked in surprise as they started down a row very far from the stage, almost in the back. "How could you push her out?"

"Well, I realized that if I could feel her in my mind, exactly where she was, then I could do something about it," he said hesitantly. "I feel it when Faey brush me all the time, and I can always feel it when they try to push past that. They feel around the edges of my pattern of thought, looking for a way through it. Well, I could feel exactly where she was, so I just kinda pushed her out."

"You pushed her out," she said combatively as they sat down in the middle of the row, like she didn't believe him.

"I'm about to push you out of that chair," he said in a nasty tone.

She gave him a dirty look, then blew out her breath. "Sorry, but you can't do that," she told him.

"You're wrong, because I did," he said pugnaciously. "Maybe you don't know as much about humans as you thought."

She gave him a very long look, and it was serious. "Maybe…you're right," she said in a low, grim tone. "Maybe we don't know as much about humans as we thought. We can't leave right now, Jason, but when we have a chance to get out of here without attracting attention, we absolutely have to go somewhere very private and very quiet, and have a long talk."

"Why not now?"

"It'll attract attention," she said, looking around. "We don't want to do that. Not right now. Not until Zarina Marci forgets about what happened. If she stops and thinks about it, you might get into a serious pile of trouble." She looked around again. "We'll leave after the first intermission."

"What's the matter with you?" he demanded.

"We'll talk about it after we get out of here," she answered in a quiet, professional tone, like a Marine about to walk into a prospective battlefield. "Until we do, don't do anything to attract attention to us. I want Zarina Marci to completely forget about you."

"You think she's going to try to get back at me?"

"This has nothing to do with that. Now be still."

"You're creeping me out here, Jyslin," he said honestly.

"Don't make me muzzle you, Jason," she warned, and he could tell that she wasn't kidding.

This sudden change in her attitude, her very demeanor, shocked him. This was a side of her he'd never seen before, when she was all serious. But something had spooked her, something about the Zarina, and he didn't think he wanted to annoy her at the moment. Not because he was afraid of her, but she seemed honestly upset, and he didn't want her to worry. So he fell silent and sat there as other Faey started filing into the auditorium.

Maya and Vell took the seats to Jyslin's left, and Zora and her husband, Oren, took the seats to Jason's right. Sheleese, who had no date, sat down immediately behind Jyslin. She leaned over the seat between them, a smile on her face. "We were looking for you two," she said. "We figured you'd dragged him into some dark corner."

"Not now," Jyslin said in a brusque tone, but the look she levelled on Sheleese made her instantly pull back. "Was the Zarina still in the lobby when you came in?" she asked.

"I don't remember seeing her," Maya answered, her playful smile melting from her face.

"Sheleese, drift back out into the lobby and see if she's still there. Send tight, Marci is very strong with her talent," Jyslin ordered, in a crisp manner. "She's not your usual lazy noble."

"She'll never sense me," Sheleese grinned, then she got up and sauntered back down the row, towards the aisle.

"You know her?" Jason asked.

"I've met her a few times," she answered. "Her sending is very strong, and that's an indicator of her power. She's not to be sneezed at. She could easily make it into the Marines."

Jason remembered that powerful telepathic ability was a requirement for being a Marine. If she was strong enough to be a Marine, then she was indeed strong. Zora, Sheleese, Maya, and Jyslin were probably four of the strongest telepaths in the theater.

"What's the angle here, Jys?" Zora asked.

"Jason and the Zarina had a little encounter," Jyslin answered. "I want to get him out of here before she realizes exactly what happened and comes looking for him. I wanted to wait until the first intermission, but if I can slip him out the door before the opera starts, that's just as good. So long as she doesn't even see him. She's probably forgotten what happened, but if she sees him, she's going to remember."

"There are exits by the men's restroom," Vell announced. "A side exit. It didn't have an alarm on it. I think it's an additional exit for after the performances end, so everyone isn't bottled up at the front door."

"That's the better tactical choice," Maya said seriously. "It's not more than fifteen shalka from the lobby door to the men's restroom."

A shalka was a Faey unit of measurment that was about fifteen inches long. Fifteen of them was roughly equivelent to about eighteen feet.

"Marci is still out there," Jyslin frowned, putting a finger to her temple. "Wait, she's near the women's restroom. That's on the far side, and there are still plenty of people in the lobby."

"Screen?" Maya suggested.

"It should work," Jyslin agreed. "Alright everyone, up. We're going to sneak Jason out the side door. I'll have Sheleese distract the Zarina, and we'll slide him out of here."

Jason was a little confused, and not a little surprised at this commanding tone Jyslin was using. Then again, she was a squad sergeant, and that meant that she did do a little commanding. The other Faey obeyed her without question, hinting to him that her authority as a Marine spilled over even into this purely civilian event. He found him caught up in this sudden military exercise, as gowned and robed Faey hustled him up out of his seat and into the aisle, then against the flow of traffic up to the lobby door. They hesitated only a second before Jyslin boldly stepped out into the lobby, pulling Jason along with her by the hand. The other Faey filed out immediately behind him, blocking anyone's view of him.

"Duck down a little!" Jyslin hissed. "By Galla's moons, she'll see the top of your head!"

Jason obediently ducked down just enough to hide his head, which was usually visible over most crowds. Jason was six feet two inches tall, which was just enough for him to be considered tall. They hustled him to a large door by the men's restroom, which had an exit sign clearly mounted above it, in both English and Faey.

They ended up on Rampart Street, and Jyslin immediately started walking away from Canal Street. "What's this all about?" he demanded.

"I couldn't leave you in there," she said. "I'll explain in the limo."

"We'll have to call the driver."

"I already did. He's on the way."

"But—nevermind," he grunted.

They waited only for a couple of minutes before the limo pulled up by the side of the street. She made sure he got in first, the got in behind him quickly. The limo pulled away from the curb, and when it did so, Jyslin blew out her breath in relief, putting her hand to her chest. "That was almost as nervewracking as a combat patrol," she admitted.

"Alright, we're in the limo. What's going on?"

She looked him right in the eyes. "Jason, there is no way you should have been able to eject Marci from your mind. That kind of action requires talent. But you're a human, so you don't have any."

He gave her a suspicious look.

"Hey, I have no idea either," she told him. "It must be your training. It gives you abilities that are this close to talent." She held her thumb and forefinger up, the tiniest of margins apart. "I didn't want the Zarina to think about what you did. She'd expect it from a Faey, but not from a human. If she got curious, she might give you trouble. Real trouble. As in hauled down to the detention center and having a Faey tear our your soul kind of trouble."

Jason shuddered at the very thought of that. "I—Thanks," he said after a moment.

"Hey, no problem," she smiled. "But you owe me now," she winked.

"I appreciate your help, but don't think I'm going to let you hold it over my head," he warned.

"I'm not. But you do owe me the opportunity to change the deal a little."

"How so?" he asked warily.

"Let's go see a movie," she said with a bright smile. "I think I'll have to go home and change first, but let's go out to the Palace in Metairie and see a movie.'

"What's wrong with that?"

"It's a bit too high class for a movie theater," she said with a light smile. "What do you say?"

He debated that for a moment, but really couldn't find any reason to say no. He did still owe her a date, and a movie sounded better than that opera any day. "Alright," he agreed.

"Good. Let me tell the limo driver to take us to my place. I'll release him and we'll take a cab to the movies."

He wasn't too keen on the idea of going to her place, but he couldn't really say anything. She did need to change, and it would be rude for him to stand out on the sidewalk and wait for her.

A little while later, after crossing over onto the West Bank, he found himself in Belle Chasse, where the former naval air station was located. The limo was allowed onto the base, and Jyslin must have been guiding him with telepathic messages, for he pulled up to one of the houses in the base housing section of the base. It was a cookie cutter house, a small affair that looked to be two bedrooms, a ranch style house on the corner of two narrow streets. He hadn't thought that the Marines would be living in the houses on the old base, but then again, since they were here and empty, why not?

Jyslin got out and then helped him out, not that he needed help, then leaned into the passenger side window to talk to the driver. "Just go back the way you came," she told him. "Do not wander around. If you get lost, just park the limo and wait for a patrol car to come, and they'll show you the way out."

"I'll be fine, miss. I've been on the base before," the driver answered calmly.

"Good. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he answered as she stepped, back, and the limo pulled away.

They watched it go. "Come on, let me show you my house," she invited.

They entered through the front door—which wasn't locked, he noticed—and she turned on the lights to reveal a strangely human living room. The carpet was a bit worn, gray shag, and she had decorated her living room with two matching large, thick-cushioned sofas that flanked a large glass coffee table, which faced a television. She had a vidlink console on the wall to the left, and the open area to the right led into a small kitchen filled with aging appliances. A hallway to the left led down to the two bedrooms, and probably to the bathroom as well, and there was a glass paned door on the far wall that led to the porch and back yard. Two standing lamps were on the side walls, and she had several works of art hanging on the walls. They were all abstract, geometric shapes and colors arranged in intriguing patterns, except for one, which was a portrait of a male Faey, nude, reclining on a couch before a waterfall. The painting was impressionist, the borders enticingly indistinct, the features curiously vague. Seeking out detail made the portrait nonsensical, but stepping back and taking it all in at once produced a coherent image.

"You like that one?" she asked as she started taking off her shoes. "My mother painted it. It's my father."

"Your mother's a good artist," Jason said honestly.

"She made all these. She sends me a new one every year," she said. "Want one? I have a few in the other rooms. I'm starting to run out of places to hang them."

"No thanks," he said.

"I'll show them to you," she declared. "Come on."