***Tirnanog, The Old Camp***

***Astra***

“Astra? Astra! Wake up!”

“Hm?” I shuddered as the voice woke me from my sweet slumber. Someone was knocking at my door hard enough to make me fear they were trying to break into my room.

Just what was it with people waking me up all the time? Couldn't a girl just sleep when she was at home? I huffed inwardly, wishing the disturbance would go away. But... unlike the other times on which I had been woken up outside of reasonable hours, this voice didn't belong to Thalia.

It might be about something actually important.

I untangled myself and got out of bed. Instead of going for style, I simply slapped my filaments around myself to create the illusion of a robe. Then I used a filament to open the door to my small room.

Liam unhappily looked inside. “Astra, we have a problem. And it is connected to your recent amorous endeavours.”

I said nothing and returned his gaze expectantly.

“It looks like the Hochberg and the Vier are causing a scene about the guy you are dating. They called for all the clans to assemble and are pressuring Gurney to stop protecting him,” he explained hastily. “I thought you might want to know.”

“Where is Thalia?” I asked. Normally, she was supposed to handle things like this.

“She went somewhere this morning because the restaurant didn't have what she needed.” Liam made a helpless gesture.

I growled and rubbed my temple. “Give me a minute.” Then I closed the door in Liam's face.

It took me two minutes to freshen up and to leave the room in a presentable state. Dealing with the other clans was as much about personal power as it was about proper conduct.

Liam had been waiting outside and I immediately pressured him for details.

Apparently, Tulkas had drawn the clans' attention and became the latest playball for politics. Just listening to Liam's explanations gave me headaches.

Tulkas had taken training lessons from a certain Brook, a Hochberg who was known for his skills with the staff. Liam didn't know how it had exactly happened, but Ean, a new exile who was also one of the petitioners for a clan position had intruded on their training lessons and challenged Tulkas – who then killed the offender.

The problem was that the Vier already had their eyes on Ean and were now complaining to the other clans about the perceived loss. As I saw it, they couldn’t claim anything when they hadn’t officially invited Ean into their clan.

But that wasn’t how things worked when the clans flexed their political muscles.

Unfortunately, I had never made a secret out of courting Tulkas, which meant everyone knew that clan Aerie had their eyes on him.

Since there was already bad blood between us and the Thich, the Thich were totally on board with the Vier's misgivings about having their intended new member killed.

Normally, nobody cared about exiles murdering each other in the open, but figuratively, this case was an opportunity to piss onto the Aerie's leg. The only motivation for this complaint was envy.

I massaged the bridge of my nose once I had listened to Liam's explanation. “What does Gurney have to say about it?”

“I don't think we can expect anything aside from his duties from him,” Liam admitted. “Right now, he is playing the neutral party like he should and blocking any attempts to get to his charge. It doesn’t help that the person in question is currently out hunting, but I figure Gurney already sent a runner to bring them back. It’s still early and they can't have gotten far.”

Liam nervously massaged his hands as he considered the situation. “Gurney already made it clear that it was an argument between exiles as far as he is concerned… but… If all the clans would band together against us, even he might have to wash his hands of responsibility and abandon protecting his protégé.”

We left the part of the bunker which belonged to clan Aerie and headed to the central hall.

The original settlers had designed the bunker as something akin to a city hall with administrative purposes. It was a star-shaped complex with eight sections which provided more than enough space for the main clans and any visitors from smaller groups. At the centre of the bunker was a large assembly hall which had likely been intended for public events.

We reached the hall and found several people talking with each other.

I recognized Sarah and Brook from clan Hochberg.

My expression turned sour when I found Ivonne talking to a Vier whose name I didn't know. The woman in question looked angry but collected. I assumed she was the one who had her eyes on this Ean fellow.

Gurney stood in the middle of the room, seeming more annoyed than anything else.

Two members from clan Jeng stood a little to the side as if to show they were here to play witness, but wanted no part in the charade. This year at least, they had no interest in recruiting new people, since their clan had met some resource problems. That much had become clear when we distributed the female exiles.

It was fine with me if they wished to remain a neutral party.

A single look at the gathering told me it was the same old story. Just a few weeks ago, all of us ganged up on the Thich because they had been a little too greedy. They had simply leaned their heads too far out of the window.

Now, it appeared like the convenient target was me and clan Aerie, for whatever reason seemed sufficient at the moment.

“Clan Aerie is present,” I announced our arrival.

“Good!” The woman from the Vier stepped forward. “We want justice for losing someone who we had our eyes on! In turn, it would only be fair for the one who murdered our man to no longer be considered as a petitioner for clan membership.”

So that was their angle. They wanted to bar Tulkas from joining a clan. They had lost their candidate, so they didn’t want the Aerie to grow stronger either.

It was the same old power play as ever.

I frowned and looked at Brook. “Before any of this continues I would rather like to know the exact circumstances for why this Ean person was killed in the first place. What makes the Vier think they can demand from us to give up on a candidate?”

Brook straightened his back. “Yesterday, I was giving Tulkas some pointers at the training field when Ean came across us. The two were from the same batch of exiles and it was apparent that they had some history with each other. To get their grievances out of the way, I suggested a friendly training match. I even went so far as to forbid weapons, believing it would prevent fatal injuries. But from the moment their fight started, it was clear that Tulkas was the superior combatant. Sadly, he was too fast and killed Ean in cold blood before I could stop it.”

Some of the people murmured in subdued tones as they listened to the recount. They were clearly surprised that a normal exile was able to do such a thing under Brook's watchful eye. Normally, exiles didn't have the skill-set to do well without having paired mutations, nor did they have the training to make full use of their abilities.

Mark was a perfect example of that. His mutations would complement a certain skill-set well, but they didn't work together well on their own. He wouldn't be able to stop someone like me, who had been fostered by a clan to become an effective warrior even without a paired partner.

Something told me Gurney would receive a few requests for Tulkas' skill-set after this and that my time was on a countdown now.

I knew Tulkas had been extremely lucky. Purely combat-wise, his set of mutations probably made him stronger than many of the spoon-fed clanners who were present in this room.

Gurney spoke up. “Then I ask again, Brook. Why make these accusations now when the only two other witnesses are out hunting and can't tell their side of the story? And why could something like this happen in the first place? I placed way too much trust in you when I suggested you as a staff instructor!”

“We should wait for them to come back,” I suggested but was overheard by the crowd.

“I am a clanner!” Brook replied with an outraged expression. “Are you going to take the word of some mere petitioner over mine?”

I cleared my throat and raised my voice. “We will get to the truth of the matter. And if this turns out to be a witch hunt, you can try to go through me via a proper challenge!”

My threat made at least some of them pause. They probably hadn't expected I would go so far as to defend my potential partnership with Tulkas by force.

Gurney signalled me nonetheless to step back. He apparently intended to take care of the matter because of principle. After all, it was his authority which had been implicitly challenged.

Sarah looked at her comrade and a suppressed frown stole itself onto her face.

I immediately took notice that there was a split in clan Hochberg. Sarah was the reasonable type, so there might be a social play I could take here if Gurney wasn’t able to handle the situation.

“The words of two petitioners against one clanner!” Gurney corrected with a snort.

“You are overstepping your boundaries, Gurney,” Ivonne said in a calculating tone and approached the arena manager as if she had something to say.

I winced, knowing Gurney wouldn't be able to ignore such a challenge.

There was a reason why the clans had chosen him as the de facto manager of the Old Camp. Had the others just forgotten or not listened when their elder instructed them regarding conduct at the Old Camp? Was I the only one who knew Gurney was not to be touched?

The arena manager straightened his back and walked two steps towards Ivonne. “Watch what you are saying, girlie. I got this position because the leaders of all the clans placed me in it.” He turned and looked around the hall. “My job is to foster new talents for the clans in a place that’s neutral grounds for everyone! Don’t forget you little whelps are just some errand runners for those with real power! They send you here to get a taste of field politics where nobody can do real damage if it comes to a fight. None of you is going to tell me how I am going to do my job!”

Ivonne stepped forward and reached out to take hold of Gurney's arm. Then she tried to pull him away, probably thinking it would be easy to manhandle him.

I knew she had at least some middle-grade strength mutation, but Gurney didn't move from his spot at all. The soles of Ivonne's shoes just slipped ineffectively over the tiled ground, not gaining enough grip to pull the rotund arena manager from his spot. The only thing she achieved was to dig her fingers deeper into his flabby skin.

Gurney reached out and slapped the flat of his palm against Ivonne's chest. He didn't move particularly fast, but there was weight behind his retaliation.

Ivonne's lips sputtered as her chest was compressed and the air forced out of her lungs.

She stumbled and did a backwards flip as she half slithered, half rolled over the ground until she broke through a table and slammed into a wall seven metres away from Gurney.

The woman who had given me so much trouble when she attacked me in the streets didn't get back up.

Instead, she rather chose to stay on the ground, trying to catch her breath. Her face looked like she had been hit by a ramhorn in full sprint. And now she wasn't certain whether everything inside her was still in the right place.

The room fell deadly silent.

Some people had clearly forgotten the arena manager wasn't to be toyed with. Ever since I started my yearly visits to the Old Camp, my parents warned me repeatedly to keep a good relationship with Gurney.

But this was the first time I saw his real strength. He had easily rebuffed Ivonne, who I had earlier judged to be a tough opponent for me.

It led me to the assumption that Gurney secretly possessed a full set of paired mutations. If so, then he was the most powerful person in the Old Camp.

Gurney looked around once more and pretended to dust off his outfit. “My job is to manage the arena and to find new talents. You people have apparently forgotten your job is to recruit these new talents. No more, no less. Your job is not to start another clan war by barring others from doing their duties. As far as I am concerned, Tulkas and Mark are new talents. Ean was mediocre at best and didn't even get sponsorship from me. Yes, he had a successful roll of the dice with that omnieye mutation, but you could have approached and invited him to your clan at any time. He even already fought in the arena, giving you plenty of opportunity for an official invitation. You did not, or I would have gotten the request. I don't care how you guys manage your recruitment duties. As long as my protégés aren’t attacking and killing clan members, you are not going to mess with the recruitment process.”

The tension somewhat fled the room when Ivonne got back to her feet on her own. The tough cookie looked more pissed than anything else, but she didn't dare to approach Gurney a second time.

Seeing her hale salted the soup for me, but there was nothing I could do about it at the moment. I should have known better than to hope for a heavy injury from being flung across the room after she had already survived a ballistic flight over the Old Camp. Given the chance, I would have used her moment of weakness to finish her off.

Sadly, there would have been too many witnesses.

At that moment, Tulkas and Mark came down the main corridor with a clanner from the Jeng. They stopped when they saw the gathering of well-dressed people, but Gurney waved for them to proceed into his part of the bunker.

The Jeng nodded to Gurney and went to stand with his people.

I let out a sigh of relief, realizing Gurney must have asked the Jeng for help. They were known for being the best trackers among the clans. Even if they would rather be neutral in this matter, they hadn't passed up on building some bonus points with the arena manager.

If the Vier and the Thich wanted to keep up the charade now, we would have at least Tulkas' and Mark's statements.

Brook tried to speak up, but Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder and shot him a glare which shut him up. It appeared like she already anticipated where this was going.

On top, Gurney had presented the gathering with the facts of his position. They had practically forced him to do so.

Nobody would be able to do anything about Tulkas killing another exile unless they tried to claim him as theirs. Just like nobody would have challenged a clanner killing some random exile, Tulkas stood above other exiles through his association with Gurney.

When the Jeng left as a group, it was a sign they no longer considered this newest round of clan politics as worth their time.

It was like a signal for the others to disperse.

I left Liam behind and quickly followed Gurney towards his section of the bunker.

He turned around when he noticed I was following him and that there was no other way to go for me. “Hey! No clanners in my rooms.”

“But I need to talk to Tulkas,” I countered.

Gurney rolled his eyes. “I will explain to him what a mess he made.”

I huffed. “It can hardly be called a mess. Let's call it as it is. Everyone knows I am seeing him regularly. They are trying to use the incident to play their games because of our association with each other. If he hadn't been dating me, nobody would have said something about the incident.”

Gurney shook his head, but I went around him. I had to make sure Tulkas knew what was going on.

The arena manager reached for me, but I easily avoided his grasping hand. He might be strong, but he was also slow. I slipped past him and quickly walked into Gurney's quarters where I found Tulkas and Mark sitting at a table with a drink in hand.

Gurney huffed into the room, but no longer tried to throw me out. Instead, he closed the large blast door which secured his part of the bunker. “You have half an hour and then you are out of my rooms!”

I nodded and turned to address Tulkas. “You killed someone yesterday.”

“Yes.” He frowned. “He left me no other choice.”

“What's going on?” Mark asked. He looked at his comrade with a dubious expression, implying the whole story was more nuanced than Tulkas' simplified reply.

I annoyedly waved a hand. “The other clans are trying to make an incident out of this. I am inclined to believe they are trying to deny clan Aerie a recruit out of pettiness. So, could you please tell us what happened yesterday?”

It was Mark who slowly recounted the story of Ean's short attempt at gathering some glory points by beating one of Gurney's sponsored recruits.

Once he was done, I felt assured my earlier assumption was correct. “The other clans are trying to use you to get to me and clan Aerie.”

“I see.” Tulkas wore an annoyed expression as he thought everything through. “I didn't anticipate making an example out of this Ean fellow would have any repercussions. I underestimated how petty clan politics are.”

“If you hadn't dated Astra, nobody would have said a thing,” Gurney grumbled. “You should have told me about the Ean incident right away. Though, not even I suspected Brook to be this petty and rat on you. What did you do to him?”

“Scratched the man's ego. Badly,” Mark remarked drily. He showed no remorse about pointing out Tulkas’ mistake.

“Hey!” Tulkas complained. “I just made sure he understood not to mess with me. That guy had it coming ever since he raised his nose when he saw me. He behaved like some pompous ass right from the get-go. Engineering the fight with Ean instead of defusing the situation was just the final nail in the coffin.”

“Well, there is nothing which can be done about it now.” I huffed. “The question is what you want to do, Tulkas. That's why I came here.” I looked at the table, not daring to meet his eyes.

“What I want to do?” Tulkas looked perplexed. He clearly still didn't understand how petty the clans were.

“The way I see it is that they will only get more hostile in their attempts to mess with you if we continue dating openly. If you still have plans to join any of the other clans, then it might be best for you to cut ties with me now. If you make it clear you would rather want to join one of the other clans, then they might back off.” It was the option I wanted the least, but I had to say it. I had no interest in building a relationship on deception.

“The other option is that you join clan Aerie right away to present them with facts,” I suggested further. “They won't be able to mess with you if you are officially partnered with me. It would set a bad precedent if they kept complaining afterwards. You would belong to clan Aerie and enjoy the clan's full protection. An attack on you would be an attack on the entire clan.”

Tulkas opened his mouth, then shut it. He looked at me, then at Gurney, and then at the ceiling. “This is going too fast. And I don’t like the logic behind it.”

“Like it or not, the woman is right about what it means for you,” Mark pointed out.

“What if I don’t want to stop dating Astra?” Tulkas asked.

My heart made a little flip at that. Would I finally get what I had been hoping for? He had been polite but hadn't agreed to anything aside from dates for the past few days, so I hadn't been sure how he felt about me.

“The longer you date her, the less likely it is for another clan to accept you,” Gurney said.

I wrung my hands and made eye contact with Tulkas. “I already said I want you.”

Tulkas couldn’t meet my eyes and instead chose to look at the floor.

Gurney threw up his hands. “Just go with her! Don’t tell me I engineered the perfect candidate for her and now they don’t want to get it on with each other because of some mushy social rules from Earth! Other people hook up with each other after one night in a bar!”

My gaze locked onto Gurney. “What do you-”

“Engineered!?” Tulkas spluttered as if he had swallowed a frog.

The arena manager looked unapologetic. “Obviously. Isn’t that my job? And I was kind of getting fed up with you, Astra. Not perfect this, not fitting that. I had it up to here!” He held a hand above his head as far as he could reach. “Now you have your perfect fit! And he obviously doesn't dislike you! And from what my spies told me, the two of you had some quite nice dates with questionable goodbyes. So it can’t be a personality thing either. Get it over with and get out of my quarters! You two are adults and my resources aren’t unlimited.”

I gaped at Gurney, unsure of whether to kiss or slap him.

Tulkas clapped his mouth shut. “I can’t believe it!”

Then he shook his head. “No, actually, I already suspected something like this. The two skill-sets are matching too perfectly and you were the one who suggested a whole third of my skills.”

“Be thankful for it!” Gurney huffed.

Tulkas frowned, then sighed. “I am.”

Then he looked towards me. “Let’s go? I don't have anything to pack.” He stood up and shouldered his rucksack and the spear since he still wore all his hunting gear.

“Awawawa...” I spluttered, unsure of what to say. This felt like a colossal betrayal on Gurney’s part, but on the other hand, this was exactly his job. And I had finally gotten what I wanted, though it somehow felt too rushed now.

Mark raised a hand. “Does that mean I can have his room for the winter?”

“No!” Gurney replied immediately. “You are going to find your own shelter! I am not going to suffer your presence for two entire months!”

“Aw…” Mark looked dejectedly down at the table.

I finally snapped out of my stupor and approached Tulkas, taking his hand.

“Good luck.” Mark winked at his friend. “We will keep going on hunting trips for as long as you stay at the Old Camp? Tomorrow? After you had your happy night?”

“Ah, of course.” Tulkas embarrassedly cleared his throat.

“I will have to introduce you to the rest of clan Aerie,” I said, thinking about what had to be done next. Truth be told, I just wanted to drag him back to my room to seal the deal as quickly as possible before anything could change his decision!

Tulkas wished Gurney farewell and we left the arena manager's quarters. Thankfully, we didn't run across any of the other clans until we reached the Aerie's part of the bunker where I shuffled Tulkas past the gate-guard with a quick proclamation that I had finally found my partner.

Since it was on the way, I pointed out the mess hall in passing. To my great relief, most of the clan members were out of the house.

Liam saw and tried to intercept us, but I waved him off as I showed Tulkas towards my quarters.

We entered the small room and Tulkas looked around with an awkward expression. “I am afraid to say I am a little at a loss of what you expect from me now. This is your room?” He studied the few belongings I had on a shelf at the wall. But my room looked quite empty aside from the set of survival gear in the corner.

“Let's seal the deal,” I blurted out while I locked the door. “To be honest, I don't believe any amount of talking would make this less awkward.”

He looked me up and down. “Ah, okay. Never expected myself to have a shotgun wedding. Should I-”

“Just drop the rucksack on the floor and sit down on the bed,” I instructed and waited for him to do as he was told. Although, I helped a little by taking some of the items off his hands.

I was glad when he didn't seem to be bothered by my filaments touching him.

Then I switched off the lights so that the only light source was my bioluminescence and what little light came through the small, shuttered window. Thalia had explained how this was supposed to go. She was unpaired herself, but she had some experience from her time on Earth.

Tulkas settled down and raised a mocking eyebrow while he took off his jacket.

I smiled and did a little slow dance to get him in the mood while I used my filaments to unbuckle Tulkas' belt and open the buttons of his trousers. From what little I saw of his face, he was mesmerized by the sway of my hips and I didn't mind giving him a little more in-depth presentation. After all, I had to get in the mood myself.

His undivided attention gave me more confidence as I approached him. I slowly touched his lips with mine until our tongues made contact. He stiffened when I found his erection with one of my filaments and wrapped it around him.

“Mh... easy.” He took a hold of my shoulders. “We should probably go slower if you are inexperienced.”

“You don't have to be gentle with me. But please don't forget I have no strength mutation.” I straddled him and lowered my hips, using my filament to guide him until he entered me. “Just let me be on top for now.”

Him entering me shut him up real quick, but it felt like I wasn't completely ready yet.

I wasn't a saint. I had used my filaments for some self-relief, but I had never tried to be quick about it.

Given his strength mutation, he could have likely stopped me at any point, but he didn't. He still had his hands on my shoulders, so I took them and made him massage my chest to help me loosen up while I slowly worked him deeper inside. My gyrations quickly heightened my excitement and I even came a little when I felt him flex and become even harder within me.

Finally, I sat all the way down, feeling all of him inside me. “Hahaha...” I laughed stupidly while I transitioned to a grinding motion. My nether regions and belly felt like a gooey mush just from that, so I started to writhe on top of him, making sure to stir him around real good. It felt divine! Why hadn't I just grabbed any guy from the street to try this earlier?

I couldn't have been at it for more than a few minutes when he stopped squeezing me.

“Shouldn't... we use... protection?” he asked the stupidest question ever and moved his hands to hold my hips still. “I am too pent up. I can't hold back.”

“As if there is any. Just kiss me and do it!” I hugged him with all my might and sealed his lips with mine. Knowing he was close gave me an excited thrill and I flexed my belly in an attempt to get myself over the edge I was hovering on.

He groaned and held onto my hips, pulling them down against his.

There was a stinging feeling deep inside me, followed by what felt like a splash between my legs. The sensation sent me over the edge and I bit into my lover's lip while I moaned and tried to ride out the earth-shattering orgasm.

Normal humans would have probably been done, but I couldn't stop as I kept rubbing against him.

He finally became a little more proactive and rolled me around until he had me on the bed beneath him. I smiled and hooked my legs behind his thighs while I used my filaments to pull him closer. Then he showed me what it meant to jump a guy who was just as sexually deprived as myself.