#asha please

-/- Flamewar guarded the den's entrance with pride. His mate trusted him, and he would not betray the trust. She - her and a select few,- were Family. The rest - they would die. One day. Painfully, slowly. When the time was right, he'd see to it.

For now, his beloved mate and her twin curled around each other, heads touching and tails tangled, glamours down. Ishtar's body was a sea of eyes, each running the gauntlet from tiny to giant. None of them blinked at the same time bar her 'main' eyes - eyes she'd calmly allowed him to take at least once-, but he didn't mind.

Ishtar was his and sometimes, thrusting into her cloaca was an experience he loved; more so when she said she saw his penis coming. Inanna, her twin, looked like her but she wasn't - he'd never bedded her; she'd tried more than once, but she was not Ishtar. She would never satisfy.

And, her body was weird on a level Ishtar's wasn't. It was a sea of 'glowing pustules'. each ranging from tiny to large. Translucent, the contained embryos in various stages of life, none of it draconic. Flamewar didn't know how he knew it, but the largest of the 'pustules' would hatch into 'face huggers' at her will. As far as Flamewar knew, it was how she walked the Paths.

"Tara?" he called using his nickname for his beloved mate, and the only answer was a shiver from each twin, and the gladiator turned his attention outwards. Calling them in the middle of a Dive was foolish.

He called-

I can't-

We're too deep

Yes. He'll keep us safe

Are you -

You know he will, Astarte.

Would I have mine alive like you-

Patience.

No.

What-

The Divescape shifted as what had once been an orderly Dive now became a jumbled, chaotic mess.

Ishtar could admit her twin's smile was more teeth than it should have been. That her reaction was less than ideal.

That what had been a chaotic mess was now an unordered mess. She'd see this Dive through to the end, but it would come in fragmented, twisted pieces.

Her mind-smile didn't reach her mind-eyes; she already hated this Dive; alrealy hated how easily Inanna - Astarte - had taken control of what should have been hers. .

"He's here!"

"And?"

"He's taken my place," Asha spat, wings flared as wide as possible as she pawed at the ground. "He's not one of us!"

"He's bound to Mahira."

"Who's not here."

"I beg to differ." Sharo said, golden gaze tracking across the clearing until it settled on the gleaming form of a tundra.

"What... But he's -"

"He can be both. He's happy, my own."

"Well, yes, yet does Creator know?"

Dark wings rose in a shrug. "Does it matter if they do?"

"It-"

"Changes nothing, my Heart."

But it changed everything. If Mahira was here, then it was only a matter of time before Akira grew wild and untamable, before hers and her own had to deal with him.

Time was not on her side, yet Creator seemed happy, content. Joyful and laughing. Upbeat as they surrounded themselves with their Favoured.

She should-

"You know why you lost Favour," Sharo interrupted, as if reading her thoughts.

"I did nothing wrong." She was the most Beloved of them all; Silver was First of the Oh-Sees, but that meant nothing. Not when it came to Creator's Favour, of which she had - should have had - with incalculable talents of gold. 

Akira should have little if any. He was vile, selfish. A disgrace to the Cadre, yet there he was, curled against Creator like he belonged alongside Silver as the Sheikh submitted to a grooming with grace the rest of them could only hope to achieve. No, Asha knew she had it. She was the most Beloved of the Oh-Sees after all.

"He must go," Asha muttered as she shifted until she was half sprawled against Sharo, purple eyes locked onto Akira. "He'll only endanger Mahira."

"Hmn. Perhaps," Sharo muttered as he watched the tundra interact with an equally gleaming skydancer.

"Very Well," Asha said, snout twisted into a scowl. "I need to show him his place.

"Asha..." Sharo began-

"What?" Asha's smile took a cruel bent as she gazed at the other Imperial. "He's bastard-born. He'll never be royalty."