“You’ve done a nice job here, Aneu,” Alex said, nodding with approval. “I’m most impressed with your employees.”

Aneu Rythal smiled. “Ms. Tolemtra said it when I first bid for the rights here. ‘Rixie’s is a celebration of togetherness,’ she said. ‘People come here because from the time they walk in to the time they leave, they’re part of a family.’ Folks like to say stuff like that starts at the top, but it really starts at the bottom – the people who are talking to the customers every day.”

“That’s true,” Alex said, “but understanding that is the job of the guy at the top, and you clearly do. I understand you want to expand to Logana?”

“Yeah, Logana Colony City is a perfect fit demographically. Has a large population of humans there too, which – I mean, even if you weren’t human, I’d want to hire them. They work hard, and people…too many frakking bigots around, don’t want to hire ‘pets.’ I hope that changes, but until it does, I’ll take the people they pass up. You get good workers that way.”

“Yes, you do,” Alex said. “Well, if you hire and run Logana City like you’ve run the two you’ve got here in Suste, you’re gonna do well.”

“So I’m approved?” Aneu said.

“Not just approved; I’m also going to see to it you get the option for Antara as well. You’re running ‘em right. I always take it a bit personally, you know, it’s my wife’s name on the door. That’s a high standard to meet.”

“I always try to think of it like it’s my husband’s name on the door,” Aneu said. “For the same reason, I bet. Your name…yeah, it’s great. But the person you love, that you’ve built a life with…that’s what matters, isn’t it?”

“Family, that’s right,” Alex said.

There was a knock at the door of Aneu’s small office. “What is it?” Aneu asked.

The door opened, and one of the hosts said, “Hi, I don’t know if you’re done yet, I just wanted to let Mr. Carey know that his wife is here.”

“We were just finishing up,” Aneu said. “How do you want to do this?”

“I’ll have Renna get in touch with you, I’m sure she’ll have legal follow up with paperwork. You know how it is. And I’ll look forward to your grand opening in Logana City.”

A few minutes later, Alex was riding on Rixie’s shoulder, his gravscooter tucked in her pocket. “This ended up working out well for both of us,” he said. “Wasn’t planning to come out and follow up on Rythal’s request for a couple of months, but with Khali willing to come along and watch Starry for the trip…anyhow, how are you guys doing? Security tightened up here?”

“Yeah,” Rixie muttered.

Alex waited a beat, before he said, “Well, you’re chatty today. What’s wrong?”

“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is too,” Alex said. “So out with it.”

“I…can’t right now. Not in public.”

“I screwed up that bad?”

“It’s not you, Alex. It’s…my father.”

“Your father? But….”

Alex looked up at the head of Rixie, which was fixed ahead, a stoic countenance engraved upon it. “You got…news about your father?”

“Yes,” Rixie said, as they reached the autoshuttle that was waiting for them. She boarded, set Alex down on a seat, and ran a quick sweep for bugs. There was one simple one, which she shut down easily. As the shuttle rose, she turned back to her husband.

“My father is Prince Kullervo,” Rixie said. “Pryvani just told me.”

“Prince Kullervo? The Empress’s brother, Prince Kullervo?”

“Not too many other Prince Kullervos out there,” Rixie said.

“So wait…you’re a princess?”

“Oh, Gods, I hope not,” Rixie said.

“Why not? You’d make an awesome princess! Sort of a Badass Princess, like Xena, or Wonder Woman. Oh man, have I ever convinced you to dress up like Wonder Woman? Because there are some outfits she had….”

“Alex, this is serious,” Rixie said.

“I know!” Alex replied. “And you’re freaked out about it, clearly, so it’s my job not to be. But why? You know who your dad is, that’s good, right?”

“I suppose,” Rixie said. “It’s not…I could have done worse. It could have been Syon Fand who was my mother or something.”

“Yikes. That would make some of our interactions with Pryvani somewhat awkward. Not to mention that it would be weird for Ryan.”

“Uh huh.”

“But still… nothing’s changed. You know who your dad is. That’s good! You know a bit about where you came from. But you’re still you. Even if you’re technically a princess…I mean, you already were to me.”

“Alex, I’m nauseous enough already.”

“I get that. But do you get me? You’re still my wife, still Asteria and Ryan’s mom, still the best person in the universe, and that doesn’t change just because you’re a princess.”

Rixie looked into the distance, before saying, “Rajenlif knew. She visited me when I was about twelve.”

“She did what now?”

“I was just inducted into the Tam caste. She was on a tour, she pulled me aside. I had braids, she commented on them. I always figured it was that – not many Jotnar Hoplites, I knew three in total. But she had to know that I was her niece. Or at least, she should have been able to figure it out. All I wanted was a family. I had the Hoplites, and the Dals loved us in their way, but…while we always said that the Hoplites are a family, we aren’t. At least, not a close family. There’s a reason that other Hoplites are my cousins, not my siblings. Even the Dals who raised me…they’re ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle.’ I could have had a family. But she left me there. They left me there.”

Alex walked over to his wife and put his tiny hand on her titanic one. “They lost out, then,” he said. “They lost out on an amazing kid and an amazing person. But if they’d taken you, I would have lost out. And so would Ryan. And Asteria….”

“Asteria wouldn’t exist,” Rixie said. “I know. I’m not sorry that I ended up here. But….”

“But it still hurts, I know,” Alex said. “But I mean it, Rix. It’s their loss, not yours. And I’m pretty sure that they knew it. If Rajenlif really was there to find you…well, she kept circling back over the years, right? Even showed up at our wedding, and helped you get ready. Maybe she couldn’t tell you directly, but she didn’t turn her back on you. She even made you an honorary Throden, right?”

Rixie’s eyebrows shot up. “She did, didn’t she?”

“I’m not saying it makes up for it. And you can rip her when you see her next. She’ll probably take it, would be my guess – and it’s probably not her fault, she wasn’t your mom, she’s your aunt. Your dad…well, who knows what happened or how. They want to meet you?”

“I think so,” Rixie said. “Pryvani said she’d reach out to them.”

“Well then, you’ll get a chance to give them a piece of your mind. And I’ll be there with you.”

“You don’t have to,” Rixie said.

“The hell I don’t! I’m your husband. I’m with you until the end, for better or worse, you can’t get rid of me even if you want to. And besides, you think I’m going to miss a chance to see you tell off the Empress? No way!”

Rixie smiled, and scooped her husband up, and brought him to her chest. “I wouldn’t get rid of you Alex. I wouldn’t give you up for anything, ever. And I’d much rather be your wife than a princess.”

“And now you’re both! And seriously…I’m downloading some pictures of Wonder Woman. You’d look great in the leotard outfit.”

“I could just be naked,” Rixie purred.

“Oh, now there’s an outfit that always works,” Alex said.

* * *

“I do love this time of day,” Vwokhu said, the chill of the night air leavened by the campfire that roared in front of her. “And yes, we get night three times a day, but this time – when Sininentavas’s night and the night on the clock line up – this is my favorite time to be here.”

“I can see why,” Liss said, stirring the fire with a stick. “I always wanted to camp when I was a kid. My mother…we did camp once, but it was because my mom had managed to divert her room and board credit from our landlord into her bank account, and we were without a home until she could swing something else. But never just to come out and enjoy nature. Nest has shown me some of it on Avalon, but it’s not quite the same when you’re there as a hologram. It looks and feels real, but you know it isn’t real.”

“It’s real to him, I suppose,” Vwokhu said. “The holographic system on Avalon sounds incredible. Is that how you’re able to…um…I’m sorry, I think I was about to ask a question of you that was somewhat inappropriate.”

Liss smiled, quite conscious of the weight of the man who was currently dozing in her breast pocket, supported by her left mammary. “It’s okay, it’s not the first time that I’ve been asked. The night we had our first date – which didn’t go well – I ended up talking to a couple of people on Avalon who were dating humans. Rixie and Brinn went into much more detail than I’ll share…but they were right. It’s different, but it’s wonderful. And yes, you can use holos to see each other on the same scale – and that’s good, sometimes – but I don’t need him to be my size.”

Vwokhu looked at the fire, and smiled. Nest and Liss had fielded questions about Avalon for a solid seven hours before Nest had gotten too tired to continue, and for the last three she had continued to chat with Liss. She had tried not to turn every mention of Rixie into an interrogation; she didn’t want to accidentally give away her secret. But she had become very convinced that the group that was there had been telling the truth, and that whatever motivation Tarsuss had, it wasn’t malign. And she had learned a great deal more about her daughter than she’d ever dared hope she would.

“Rixie Carey does keep coming up in your stories,” Vwokhu said, hoping it would not arouse suspicion. But if it did, Liss did not show it.

“The Careys tend to do that,” Liss said. “But really, Rixie was one of the people who convinced me that I shouldn’t let my bad date with Nest stop me from trying again. I’d been…well, I’d been nervous I wasn’t good enough for him.”

“But you’re a Titan!”

“So? He’s a hero. I was a courier. And…that’s the thing, I didn’t….”

Liss sighed. “After Nest and I did start dating, I asked Rixie how she did it. She saw Alex as a person, that was clear as water. And if Nest and I had trouble in the early going…it was me tripping over my own feet, trying to not see him as a human, but a person. And she was blunt, the way she usually is – she told me that she hadn’t always seen Alex as a person, but the more time she spent with him, the clearer it was, until one day the idea that he wasn’t a person was the part that didn’t compute. That she couldn’t understand why she’d ever seen him as different. Oh, she told me the truth – you do have to know that you’re stronger, and that in the Empire people are going to treat you as the person and him the pet, even now. You have to know that so you can be careful…and so that you can be protective…but not so careful and protective that you make them feel like they’re anything less than you are.”

“It sounds difficult.”

“It is, but…I’m guessing, with a Melpoman husband, that you’ve dealt with some bigotry here. Some people who don’t understand why you didn’t find a Jotnar to love.”

Vwokhu smiled. “Yes, we have. Less and less…but quite a bit when we first married. Including from my mother.”

“You understand, then. And you understand how it can flip. There’s some resistance to me on Avalon – not much, but some. Not every human is happy with human-titan relations, and don’t get me started on the way people feel about hybrids. I’m sure when you go to the Reef, your braids get stares. Everyone can be foolish and wrong. And that’s why, if you keep your eyes open…you realize that it’s the bigotry, the fear…that’s the part that doesn’t make sense. And you don’t understand why you ever thought different.”

“I think you and Nest were lucky to find each other.”

“There’s no question of that,” Liss said. “None at all.”

* * *

“So Lord Carey’s mother. Well, at least unlike Audara, she won’t need a title.”

“That’s my girl, always looking on the bright side,” Kullervo said. “Honestly…I owe it to her to meet with her. But as with Aud…I’m not asking to bring her into the family, or make the kids call her ‘sister.’ I sired her, but everything else….”

Sen. Tellervo Aahchi, Jarlkon of Naesavarna, sighed and shook her head. “My concern is that like Aud, she’ll be resentful. That when we hear from her, it will be a passive-aggressive request for aid followed by nothing for years. Not that I begrudge Aud anything, you know that, but….”

“I can’t fault her for not seeing me as anything more than a bank,” Kullervo said. “That was my contribution to her – money, and nothing else. I don’t think Rixie will fall into the same category. I mean, she’s the Rixie in ‘Rixie’s.’ Her husband is quite well-off, and even if he wasn’t, she’s the head of security for Lady Tarsuss herself. I’m fairly certain that they’re richer than we are. So that won’t be the issue. As for her being annoyed with me…that I can accept. I deserve it.”

“Yes, you do. But our family doesn’t. Still, as I told you with Aud, many years ago…she is your offspring. And while I may not have known her name, she is not a surprise to me – you told me about her and Aud before you would allow me to date you. So I will not stand in the way of you meeting her. I do, though, want to make sure you tell your children. You owe it to them.”

“They know that Aud wasn’t the only one. I’ll call each in turn. They can even meet her if they want to – if it won’t scare her off.”

“I am curious how she found you after all these years. I thought that her records had been severed from yours?”

Kullervo laughed. “I told you, she’s Tarsuss’s head of security. If you think there’s a secret Pryvani Tarsuss can’t discover….”

“Yes, that’s a good point,” Tellervo said.