"Uncle," Canas interrupted, "please, I need an answer."

"Are you familiar with the name of Anlon mul'Gan, boy?" Vanta demanded.

"Of course I am," Canas replied, his face stricken. The question struck like a physical blow.

Vanta tilted his chin imperiously. "He was the finest pilot I've ever known. He was my daj. And now the daj I am currently saddled with informs me that he has now taken a var from a dissolved family as his wife. So you will forgive me, boy, if I need a moment to process this information before I pass judgement on the son of my dear friend and wed-brother!"

Canas straightened his back and went rigid.

"And not just any var, no. You choose the twin of the monster who tried to take your sister away from us!"

Nura clenched her teeth. She wanted to speak up against Vanta invoking her against Canas, but now wasn't the time.

Vanta was upset, to be sure, but it was coming from a place of surprise, not entirely from disapproval. Canas understood this as well, but that didn't make the things their uncle said in haste any less hurtful.

He was a man accustomed to decisive action. Raising two children on his own had been a drastic change to the life he had led. When confronted with Canas' troublemaking or Nura's melancholy, his first instinct was to meet it with force and drive it into submission. Then, his thoughts tended to catch up with his actions, and he dealt with the situation better and made amends as needed.

"This is my fault," Vanta said. He turned around and pounded his fist against the wall of his office aboard the Fanthara. "Everything goes back to that frigate. Young daj'Korr acted bravely and with honor, but he shouldn't have had to face that thing alone."

Canas took a tentative step towards him. "You couldn't have known, Uncle. Not even the Psy-Agency suspected how powerful shi'Zhar was. There was no reason to believe Nura wouldn't be safe with the soldiers."

"There was every reason to believe," Vanta snapped harshly. "I knew where I was. That creature was a psychic!"

Canas backed away and lowered his eyes.

Nura flinched as well. While Canas and their uncle paced the office like caged animals, she sat on the one sofa in the room.

It was a large office, as befitted the patriarch of the Ganlera and the head of Ganlera Materiel. The whole family suite Nura and Canas once shared with their parents could've fit within this room.

Vanta turned away from the wall, and he got a pained look on his aging face. "Forgive me, boy. I..." The old man swept a hand over the silver hair on his head. "You and your sister are not psychics. You're latents. There's a difference."

Being a latent simply meant you were a psychic too insignificant to be worth the expense of registering. Nura didn't find the distinction to be as comforting as her uncle meant it to be— largely due to her hunch that Vanta was saying so to convince himself as much as his daj.

Would she ever stop getting these hunches? Every time she felt one whisper to her, she couldn't help but think they made her closer to what Velos had been. If she could, she would've silenced them forever.

While Vanta continued to blame himself for being drawn away to help secure the frigate and Canas tried futilely to ease his guilt, Nura kept her eyes on the metal plating of the office floor.

Vanta believed her to be traumatized, and Nura supposed that was true in its own way. However, she wasn't consumed with fear, numb with shock, or even experiencing guilt over her failure to help Kalko. Not anymore— not with Meras' parting words still in her heart. What occupied her and kept her silent was worry for what lay ahead. Nura had plans, and though she was certain it was the right thing to do, there was an element of risk to it.

Something Vanta said brought her back into the moment. He seemed to have calmed himself for the most part.

"The Tovre's headmaster has been understanding of your absence yesterday, Canas, but our name only carries so far. I'll arrange for a shuttle to take you back this afternoon, and you can prepare for your final exercise." Vanta sighed. He continued on, his voice now absent of the fury it held previously. "I'm aware of your feelings for the Tomi... for young Meras. I suppose I now know the real reason you wished her to be on your crew, but you'll need a replacement. I've arranged for Calo shi'Dahr to join you. He was the mechanist for Nura and daj'Korr's crew and now finds himself alone. I'm told he's placed seventh in the elective astrogations course and should suffice."

Canas nodded his acceptance, though he shot a worried look in Nura's direction. "As you say, Uncle."

Vanta's lips twisted as if he just swallowed a bitter portion of vegetable paste. "And you're now assigned the Lucky Peddler, seeing as your previous ship has just been billed to me."

Unexpectedly, Nura felt a stab of envy over the Peddler. She was starting to get annoyed by Canas receiving what she possessed first.

"And you, girl," Vanta said. He kept his voice soft, as if he worried he may startle her away. "I've spoken with the headmaster. You may take as much time as you need— perhaps a few weeks— before your own examination. A crew will be provided for you."

"I am not so fragile, Uncle," Nura said.

"You can't be thinking of returning already?" Vanta said.

"In a manner of speaking," she replied.

"Nura," Vanta said with aggravating patience, "you aren't thinking clearly. Trust me, you're in shock from the experience. Just take a few days to rest. Don't go jumping into something you may regret."

Uncle, Nura thought. That is precisely what I intend to do.

Canas was staring at her, a trace of suspicion in his eyes. It was hard to tell what he would think about all of this. Nura's twin would either be her staunchest ally or another obstacle to overcome. Whichever he may prove to be, Nura was saddened that their time together was coming to an end. Now, at the threshold of higher learning, her and Canas' educations were going to truly diverge for the first time. It took longer than Vasya fas'Lera intended, but they were finally going to be separated.

Someday soon, Nura would learn to stop invoking the Voidtouched. Unfortunately, this time it was necessary.

Without leave to enter, or so much as a knock, the door to Vanta's office opened to let in the matriarch of the Ganlera family. Poor Canas appeared to want nothing more than to throw himself into the corridor before the door closed, and Vanta looked as if he was wondering where he last put his old service pistol.

"What in the burning hell of the Void do you want, crone?" Vanta growled, a fair length of his fangs showing.

Vasya regarded Nura's uncle with haughty eyes and a smug twist in her lips. She hadn't aged well since Vanta had taken two young whelps into his care. Her once reddish fur was now streaked with silver, and her eyes were all but sunken into her skull. With luck, she wouldn't last much longer.

"I came to get an explanation of what your two daj have been doing, you old relic." Her scowl seemed to be directed at everyone else in the office at once.

Vanta took a seat behind his desk. He spared Vasya a contemptuous glare before he picked up a blank datapad and pretended to read something more pressing. "None of your concern," he said curtly.

Vasya came to stand in front of his desk and stared down at him. "I believe I've received enough comms from the matriarchs of other families to make it my concern."

"Would that my duties allowed me so much free time," Vanta muttered, "that I could wring my hands over matters that do not concern me."

The matriarch slammed a palm down on his desk. "This scandal has rocked the entire Nomadic Fleet! Kalko daj'Korr's name is on every tongue, and all who once bore the names of Zhar and Tomi are scrambling to disavow themselves of their former family." She rounded on Canas. "Ganlera was free of it all. Gods of Fire, your sister is even being spoken of as a hero by the press for helping that alien."

"I don't much care for that use of the word, crone," Vanta growled. "Mind how you speak of my sister-in-arms."

Vasya ignored him and remained focused on Canas. Her next words came like a hiss through her fangs. "And you ruined it."

"Is there something of merit you wish to say, Vasya?" Vanta demanded.

"They are so much like you, Vanta," Vasya sneered. "Blundering through life, not a care or thought towards how your actions affect the family."

"And your words have as much substance as the Void," Vanta said.

"You speak to me of substance? Are you going to sit there and tell me you approve of these children bringing that Tomi bitch into our family?"

That was enough to bring Nura to her feet. Canas' fangs were openly bared, his animalistic snarl reverberating through the office.

Vanta slowly raised his head to look into Vasya's eyes. A wave of his hand settled his nephew. "It's been many years, hasn't it, Vasya? I remember a day, long past, when another young girl was welcomed amongst us as a Lera. She was so warm. So kind and pure. Tell me, you wretched, old woman, what happened to Vasya tav'Tomi?"

Nura looked on the woman with shock. This, she hadn't seen coming.

The matriarch's eyes went wide, her pupils contracting to specks of black. "You dare speak that name to me?" she whispered. "You utter it now, of all times?"

Vanta shook his head sadly. "Does blood mean so little to you that you would delight in the suffering of those you once called family? Have you no love for the girl, your own twin's granddaughter?"

The matriarch was silent.

Nura spoke up in her place. "Meras is loved, and no matter what the Admiralty has forced on her, she always will be. She has a family."

Vanta regarded Nura and gave her a solemn nod. He then turned his attention towards Canas. "I said unkind things to you, daj, and I promise to make it right. What the Admiralty did was rash, and it was wrong. Asking a young woman fresh to her grief to disavow her twin, and then forsaking her from all she knows when she but hesitated..." He got an angry look. "It was nothing short of despicable. Canas, even should it take every day I have left to me, I will see your wife returned to you."

"Absolutely not," Vasya said. "You would put Ganlera in support of a var?"

"I would put Ganlera in support of one of our own," Vanta answered. "The crime Meras var'Lera stands accused of tells me all I need to know of her. She loved her twin. Would that the Fleet had more such criminals."

"Are you even stopping to consider for one moment?" Vasya said accusingly. "What will the other families think?"

"To the Void with what they think. I care about what you think, Vasya."

The matriarch gave a tiny start. "Me?" she asked dubiously.

"You are our fas and our matriarch. It is you who must present Ganlera's case to the Admiralty."

Vasya frowned. "The Tomi girl is..."

"She is my wife, Matriarch," Canas said calmly. "The words were spoken and witnessed. She is a Lera."

Vasya's face was unreadable, but Nura could feel the maelstrom of emotion and indecision swirling behind it.

"It is my duty to protect the Leras," Vasya said at last. "I expect I won't be able to stop you from shouting your opinions into every ear, so I must bring a request for an appeal before the Admiralty at the very least. The family must present a united front."

"As you say," Vanta agreed from behind steepled fingers. "Otherwise, what might the other families think?"

Vasya grimaced. She didn't like this outcome, but she knew the ship had left the spaceport. "And what of this girl?" she asked as she turned her shriveled head to regard Nura coldly. "We must spare her a thought as well. We can't have her aboard the Fanthara for much longer, not while she is the focus of so much scrutiny."

Nura barely kept herself from baring her teeth at the hag. She still needed Vasya for what came next.

Vanta made a soft sound of exasperation. "You can't expect Nura to return to classes as if nothing happened. She needs time to recover."

"I do not," Nura spoke up as she approached the desk and stood next to Vasya. "The matriarch is correct. For the sake of the family, I cannot neglect my education."

Vanta looked at Nura as if she had just turned into a Pexu.

"Well," Vasya said, quite pleased by the unexpected support, "it seems the girl has managed to avoid being corrupted fully. I'm happy to see you have retained a modicum of sensibility despite your uncle's efforts."

"Of course, Matriarch," Nura said with a slow curtsy. "That my education was interrupted at all is simply unacceptable."

"Quite so," Vasya agreed.

"Nura," Vanta said in disbelief, "you can't honestly..."

"I have heard quite enough of what you think I can't do, Uncle," Nura interrupted. It pained her to do it, but the way Vanta struggled to comprehend her defiance of him was gratifying in its own way. She would have to make it up to him before the day was through.

If Canas' eyes were suspicious before, they were downright accusing now. He knew she was up to something. He just didn't know what.

Vasya's pleasure was palpable. Her self-satisfied smirk was only tolerable because it was doomed to be short-lived. "You needn't worry yourself, child," Vasya said to Nura. "Your uncle has a long and sordid history of underestimating Leras. I'm sure you'll see that once you arrive at the Space Operations Academy..."

"Forgive me, Matriarch," Nura interrupted again, "but you are incorrectly assuming my intentions."

The old hag blinked in confusion. "I beg your pardon."

It was time for Nura to reveal her tiles. "I will not be returning to the Tovre, nor will I attend classes aboard the Baullock. With my number one placement in six applicable courses finalized, I have secured my acceptance to the Fleet Academy of Medicine. Tomorrow morning, I depart for the Anillika."

The office went as silent as the Void, but not for long. It was a matter of debate whether matriarch or patriarch was the louder. "What is the meaning of this?" Vasya demanded at the same time Vanta shouted, "Have you lost your mind, girl?"

"I mean precisely what I have said," Nura replied calmly. "The transfer of my application has already gone through. The headmaster of the Anillika was quite pleased. As you told me, Uncle, the Space Operations Academy hasn't had a daj in years, but the Medical Academy hasn't in generations. Obtaining permission was not an issue."

"You little wretch," Vasya shouted. "Have you no thought of your mother? Of the family? You are to be an astrogator for the Service. That is the way of things! It isn't some upstart headmaster's place to give you permission, but..."

"Mine," Vanta growled. "Check your fangs, Vasya. You will not speak to my daj in that way."

"Your daj?" Vasya hissed. "She should not be your..."

"Could we keep to the current subject, please?" Nura said with enough civility to drown a person. "I've no interest in your petty refusal to acknowledge Vanta as my saj."

"You dare?" Vasya whispered in disbelief.

"Rest assured, Matriarch. Vanta is my saj. His is the only permission I want or require. As to my mother, I believe she would have been the first to tell me that I must do as the Nomadic Fleet requires of me, and by extension, the Confederation."

Vanta folded his hands in front of his face and watched Nura closely. "That she would, girl." It was not quite an agreement. More an indication that he was willing to listen.

Nura found it harder than she expected to meet his eyes. "You know of my performance, Uncle. My evaluations were quite clear. So, I ask you what the Service has more need of. A mediocre astrogator... or an excellent doctor?"

Vanta's amber eyes could have pierced though her with their intensity.

Vasya beat her fists against his desk. "Enough of this! Vanta, take control of your niece. If she won't do as the family needs of her willingly, then you must force her."

Vanta scowled at the matriarch. "What the family needs of Nura is for her to enter into the Service. Whether she serves as an astrogator or a medical officer makes no difference to either the Nomadic Fleet or the family. Either way, we have our soldier."

"This is unacceptable," Vasya shrieked. She advanced on Nura, her hand pulled back as if she meant to try striking her. "You cannot just flaunt tradition like this! You can't do it!"

"Silence," Vanta roared. "I've listened to enough of your wailing, crone. You've no place in this decision, and it's been made without you."

"You truly think so?" Vasya snarled, her sunken eyes beginning to bulge out of her head. "Before this day is over, I'll... I'll..."

Gods of Fire, but Vasya had some emotional control issues. Nura could sense her going off like a sensor board in the middle of a solar storm.

"You'll do nothing," Vanta said.

"Nothing? Rest assured, you vain, little man, I will most certainly not be doing nothing. When the other elders hear of this, the little pac will join her wed-sister and be given the var!"

Pac? Of all the... Nura wondered how far her plan would deviate from the charted course if she went for the hag's jugular with her fangs.

Vanta stood, his hackles rising, teeth bared, and his eyes reflecting the wrath Nura felt growing inside him. "Recant those words" he growled. "Immediately."

"You doubt me?" Vasya asked. "Just you try to send her to the wrong academy, and you'll see what I dare."

"There is something that has always fascinated me about you," Vanta said in a dark tone. It would've been less menacing if he shouted. "You know who I am and what I've done. You know that during the Fourth Xixi Crusade, the mere rumor that I may be nearby kept entire sectors of Wild Space secure. You know the Xixi name me The Storm That Watches and that since my campaign, the wilders don't dare to even speak their word for crusade again. These monsters who feast on the flesh of their victims, they fear me. What fascinates me about you is that you don't."

It took a moment before the old hag mustered up enough bile to speak again. "Is that supposed to be some sort of threat?"

"I've no need to threaten you," Vanta said. "The family elders trust me. You, on the other hand, have spent the last few decades eroding their goodwill with your spite. If you try to stop Nura, you will fail."

The matriarch snarled, then spun on her heels to face the door.

"Vasya," Vanta said to stop her. He came around his desk and approached her. He held his arms wide as he spoke. "Why do you fight against me as you do? We are family. It is our place as the heads of Ganlera to look after the happiness of all who bear our name. You knew this once. I ask you again, what changed you?"

The matriarch hunched her shoulders, and she didn't turn to face him. The sudden emergence of a deep, consuming sorrow within Vasya disturbed Nura to the core with its intensity.

"What's become of the girl who wed my twin as I bore witness?" Vanta asked.

The sorrow retreated and became bitterness once more. "She was destroyed," Vasya said, "by men like you."

The expression of grief on Vanta's face was total. "Then, I shall mourn her passing. Goodbye, Vasya."

Nura watched Vasya storm out through the corner of her eye. Vanta was wrong about her. Nura could feel it like a worm in the old woman's heart. Vasya was afraid of him— afraid of almost everything. All that she did was motivated in part by that. She feared change, being shamed, and lack of control, but above all else, she feared irrelevancy. That was what Vanta did to her and why she feared him so much. He took away her relevance.

Vasya had one final glare to give to Nura, one full of resentment and enmity. It was so far from the ideals of family that Nura wanted to forget she ever saw it. Vasya hated her.

It would've been so very easy, but Nura couldn't bring herself to hate her back. While she watched the old woman leave and close the office door behind her, Nura felt nothing but pity.

"Nura," Canas whispered. He drew to her side, his eyes on her. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"What are you talking about, boy?" Vanta demanded.

Canas kept his focus on Nura. "The matriarchs of the other families... You spread the news I married Meras."

Nura turned to look at her brother. "It didn't take much prodding to get them running to Vasya. The games they play are little more than a competition of who can embarrass the others most. So predictable. It was like throwing a bone into a pit of hungry saffa."

Canas' grin had a decent measure of admiration in it.

"You played us, girl?" Vanta asked.

Nura took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Uncle, but I did. I knew if Vasya confronted you, you would immediately take the opposite position. So, I made sure she would come here and that she would oppose my going to the Anillika."

"And she was right to oppose you," Vanta said, raising his voice. "Gods name me a fool for saying so, but she was right to. What have you maneuvered me into agreeing to let you do? The Medical Academy? What in the burning hell of the Void are you thinking?"

Nura approached her uncle. "I think I don't ever want to be in the same situation I was."

Vanta opened his mouth, but Nura steamrolled over him.

"I don't ever want to find myself kneeling over someone, watching them die while there's nothing I can do to stop it. I'm not going to be that helpless ever again."

Canas reached out and took her hand. She looked at him, and he gave her an encouraging nod of his head. Nura smiled in return.

"And Meras?" Vanta asked. "Did you rely on Vasya's vitriol to sway me there as well."

"No, Uncle," Nura said. "For the important things, I feel I can trust you to make the right decision on your own."

Vanta barked a short laugh, then rubbed at his temples. "Daj of my blood, what put this madness into your head? You're not some foolish girl who twits about by her whims."

Nura's eyes had been opened by Meras' strength. Doing as was planned for her wasn't taking the galaxy as it was and being content. It was apathy. It was being too scared to take a risk, recognize the future she wanted, and take that first step towards who she wished to be. It was being afraid of what may come.

Meras had proven that the fear of failure didn't have to control her life. She wouldn't be intimidated. She would never be afraid.

Nura now saw that she could fail while doing what was deemed safe. She may still fail, but Nura had faith that she wouldn't. She knew she could succeed and become as fine a doctor as Mother had been an astrogator. Not because she was a Lera or because she held the daj, but because she was as Meras saw her.

The corner of Vanta's mouth twitched as he fought back a smile. Nura sensed his disbelief, his amazement, and his uncertainty. But she could also sense his wonder and his pride.

"Why are you so certain you can pull this off, girl?" he asked.

Nura looked her uncle in the eye and smiled. "I'm Nura, and she can do anything."