***Tirnanog, Aerie Flagship***

***Magnus***

“What are you doing here? The fleet is about to go into battle!”

“There he goes again,” Ivonne stopped and turned to face me as if she and Hector hadn’t just tried to avoid me by dodging around a corner. “We should have stayed in our quarters till it started, Hector.”

So I was right! They tried to avoid me!

“I told you it wasn’t smart to insist on taking part in this campaign,” Hector mumbled, more so to himself, than to Ivonne. “Anywhere without the possibility of running into ‘him’ is preferable.”

I ran towards the couple and glared at Hector for allowing my little sister to come here. “Haven’t I told you to keep her out of trouble? Didn’t we agree you have to inform me about her plans through the UI? Why do I have to randomly encounter you on this corridor? What were you two up to?”

Hector gulped and threw a sideways glance at Iv who crossed her arms and looked up at her partner, expecting him to say something.

“You have secret contact with my brother? To snitch on me?” Her eyes narrowed. “What have you told him about our plans?”

Hector looked like he had just been caught between a hammer and an anvil. He raised both hands in an appeasing gesture and stepped behind Ivonne. “Look, I just want to stay out of this quarrel you two are having. I may be your partner, Iv, but that doesn’t entitle me to get in between you and your brother. When siblings clash, the spouse gets a free card out of jail!”

“It’s not a quarrel!” I replied quickly. “I entrusted you with the task of keeping my little sister away from the fighting. All you had to do was give a simple heads up she would try to join the war! What’s so hard about a chat message through the UI? She would have never known.”

“It’s not up to you to make such decisions for me, Magnus!” Iv countered before turning on her partner. “And show a little more spine, Hector!”

“Oh, I have a spine,” Hector replied. “But I also don’t want unnecessary trouble. Now that I have a choice about it, I like not trying to fight with everyone and everything around me.”

“Your affairs become mine if you are not qualified to take part in military operations!” I retorted at Ivonne. “The Frosts may have adopted you, but that doesn’t entitle you to wield their authority.”

Iv’s expression turned smug. “That’s why Hector and I were training so hard for the past few months. We delved into the deepest parts of Aerie’s cave system and optimized our mutations – including a symbiont! We got tested and are now officially juggernaut classed! Just as you are.”

She showed me her open palm and had some… slime… ooze out from beneath her skin. “Meet Ozzy, it is a slime-mould which bonds with their host to enhance their physical and mental abilities! It’s not sapient, but sentient. And it knows how to help based on our feelings.”

I spared the wiggly thing on her palm a few moments of abhorring curiosity, wondering what other uses the glibber thing might have. But that was not important right now. Iv was trying to distract me with that new pet of hers.

“Hector!” I turned to my in-law, hoping that as a member of the thirteenth strata – the people in charge of Aerie’s legal system – he would have something to say about this.

He only shook his head. “All according to protocol, I am afraid.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but couldn’t find a logical-sounding argument at the drop of a hat. If Ivonne had gone through the complete authorization process for joining this campaign, she was technically better certified than me, since I had allowed Astra’s parents to remove some organisational hurdles I might have faced otherwise.

Ivonne turned around. “Why are you hiding behind me, Hector? It’s just my brother. Don’t you realize he won’t do anything now that we are partnered? You should be the one standing up for me!”

She kicked Hector’s shin to no apparent effect.

“I don’t believe Magnus is messing around when it comes to you.” Hector was unimpressed and grabbed Iv’s shoulders, turning her back around to use her as a shield against me.

I narrowed my eyes. “If I ever see you trying to use my sister as a shield against anyone else, I am going to test that juggernaut title of yours by throwing you off this ship!”Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Stop threatening my partner, Magnus,” Ivonne said while getting up in my face, or at least trying to do so. She was a few centimetres too short to not make it look hilarious. “I am going to search for Evanne! And there is nothing you can do to stop me since I have all the necessary credentials to take part in this operation.”

I blinked down at her while pressing my lips together, doing my best not to let something unfortunate slip. Astra and the others had advised me to let go of trying to protect Ivonne from herself, so I did my best not to comment on anything she got up to since partnering up with Hector. I even approved of her relationship.

In hindsight, that might have been a mistake. Making him disappear now was a little too late.

Hector pointed at me. “That’s the expression! Did you see it? When the corner of the left eye twitches like that. He’s considering killing me! It was the same when he tried choking me to death.”

Did he get some psychic abilities or was Hector just becoming too familiar with me?

Ivonne slapped Hector’s hand aside. “Astra ended that incident way before you were in any danger of dying. You are becoming paranoid again. My brother won’t hurt you. He even approved of our relationship!”

I quickly mimed cutting off Hector’s little finger for allowing Iv to come here. When he saw that, his eyes widened, but I quickly put my hands back down when Iv turned her attention back to me. Thanks to my speed, she hadn’t seen anything.

Just how could I get my sister to stay out of this battle? Despite how it grated on my sense of responsibility for what happened to my sisters, I had to come to terms with Ivonne’s personality. If told not to do something stupid, Ivonne was the type of person who would be all the more committed to doing it just out of spite.

It was better not to say anything to not rile her up, but I had to say something or she would get herself killed for sure.

By Gaia, this latest stunt of hers wasn’t making it easy. And Hector would assuredly face some blowback for failing his mission!

“Iv, I haven’t forgotten for a moment about Evanne,” I said once I was sure to keep my voice level. “If there is anything I can do to save her, I will do it. I just don’t think there is anything we can do right now. Taking part in this engagement provides almost zero chance of finding Eva while risking injury or death. Everyone I know is looking for her. And I plan to go and get her whether she likes it or not as soon as I see a chance to do it without running through Thich’s capital and shouting her name.”

“I have no doubts you will try,” Iv replied while tilting her head. “But can you even guarantee that you will recognize her should you happen to face her? You couldn’t recognize me when we met after all those years.”

I snorted. “Of course! She should look like you and be violet. I’ve read the report you made for the Council of Elders.”

Iv blinked and looked down at herself. “Are you serious? I look a lot different from when we met. There’s no guarantee for Evanne to stay the same.” Her expression darkened. “With the war going on all the recruits were assuredly ‘encouraged’ to partner up. Do you have no other plans than to wait and see whether someone is going to find her, or her showing up by chance?”

I pursed my lips in frustration.

After hooking up with Hector, Ivonne had indeed lost most of her violet colouration in favour of a paler, much more ‘human-ish’ skin colour – probably owed to Hector’s previously ashen complexion. However, she and Hector were still somewhat violet. Her physique was also a lot sturdier than before and while I strongly believed her face hadn’t changed much, I had to admit I wouldn’t have recognized her from behind easily.

Hector shook his head, showing he thought this argument was a lost cause. He had his hands in his pockets as if that would save his fingers.

I gave up. “What else are we supposed to do? Okay, since you obviously won’t let this matter go, let’s talk facts! I have thought a lot about what we should do if we find Eva. Are you aware that a high number of the commanding Thich we are fighting are mind-programmed fanatics? And by mind-programmed I mean some psychic on Thalia’s or the Matriarch’s level fucked with their brain! The matriarch tried to untwist one of them, but she says that’s not something she will make a habit of. My greatest worry till now hasn’t been how to find Eva, but what I might have to do should I find her. Ivonne, are you ready to defend yourself from Evanne with possibly lethal force if she decides to kill you? Or will you run up to her and get shanked because our enemies put a kill order into her mind?”

“Eva would never…” Ivonne shook her head. “How would they even know to do such a thing? Neither Evanne nor I were anywhere important enough to justify the effort.”

“I wouldn’t know how, but I do know that the Thich leader, Zacharias, knew me by name. And he knew they had my sisters among their ranks. I suppose the assassins who tried to kill me back at Aerie identified me and Earth somehow reasoned out why I came to Tirnanog. Then they warned the Thich.” I crossed my arms. “Zacharias tried to threaten me back at the battle for Jeng’s Mother Tree. Though, it turned out he was just fucking around because he could. When we fought, neither Astra nor I could touch the guy.”

Ivonne looked at the floor. “I will keep what you said in mind, but I will not give up on Evanne. If I have to, I will club her over the head and drag her out of whatever mess she is in.”

I raised an eyebrow in surprise and debated whether I should say more, but there was probably no point in doing so. I honestly hadn’t expected Iv to come to such a conclusion. Maybe assembling a group of the most powerful people I knew and raiding the Thich capital to abduct Evanne wasn’t as whacko as it sounded. Of course, we would have to ask either Thalia or Vanya to undo whatever the Thich had done to Eva... and whoever she partnered up with had to be killed, obviously.

Hmm, it was probably better not to voice that thought aloud since it definitely crossed a line – maybe.

Anyway, Iv was forewarned and that was all I could do at the moment.

“Just look out for yourself,” I said after a moment of hesitation. “I was ordered to stay on the bridge with Astra. If you need anything, you can find us there.”

Ivonne nodded. “Hector and I are stationed at the drake hangar.”

She turned and walked away, gesturing for Hector to follow her.

Her partner was a little bit slower, so I made sure he knew what was to come by pointing at Iv and mimicking the good-old loose thumb some people liked to play on children. If he failed his duties and Iv got hurt, there would be hell to pay.

I think I never saw someone running almost as fast as I could.