***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Ivona***

Despite looking not much older than myself, Teresa Frost was an intimidating woman. Her scintillating filaments made her clothes look more like a queen's regalia than anything I had ever seen on Astra.

It just wasn't fair that the Frosts could use their weird tentacles as clothing and change outfits whenever they wished! It was a girl’s wet dream.

It vexed me to no end, even if my instincts screamed danger every time one of those shimmering, silken bands drifted close to me.

Teresa's eyes shone with self-assuredness and her demeanour ensured everyone knew she wasn't just some chick in her twenties. In other words, she was formidable and I couldn't help but feel envious of a woman like her.

She had control over her life, power, and beauty. Things I never had.

I was admittedly a little confused when she officially adopted me into her family. Just what was she up to?

Originally, I thought she would try to worm her way into my good graces with pleasantries and comfy lies, so my next surprise came when Teresa blatantly admitted to her intention of using me to her clan's benefit.

Right during our first private meeting no less!

Even if the Thich had managed to pull me into their organisation, I always knew how to avoid conniving fucks who wanted to use me for their ends on a personal level.

My brother would surely argue I had failed to do so with the Thich, but I didn’t think so. At least not completely. Looking back, I realized the problem didn’t lie so much with me completely buying into the clan’s schemes, but with me becoming friends with some of those who grew up alongside me and my sister.

Just by living in the compound with all the other trainees, I couldn't help but become compromised and develop attachments.

My mind was involuntarily drawn to my sister and the many friends we made at the clan. Thich hadn’t been a nice place to call home, but it and some of its people had become a home and family nonetheless.

As I regarded the regal woman across from me, I realized I didn't know how to deal with someone like her. The headmaster back at the compound would have never told me right to the face he had ulterior motives.

But... maybe... if we could simply stay honest in our relationship... I could get behind us using each other. After all, the best kinds of deals were the ones where everyone got what they wanted.

Beyond that, over the course of the day, Teresa had somehow managed to convince me of her genuine intention to help by simply being honest. At least as far as it was within her capabilities. If not because she would help any homeless girl who came to her doorstep, then because Astra asked for it.

I was pulled out of my idle lamentations when one of Teresa's filaments placed a cup of tea in front of me.

She gave me a motherly smile. “Do drink something, dear. We will visit the Tates in an hour or two. Sienna sent a message for us to come by. It looks like she made some progress with evaluating the test data she took during your visit to the hospital.”

Teresa sat, sighed, and leaned back on the living room's couch.

I took the cup and sheltered it between my palms to absorb its warmth. “Thanks. It should be no problem. There was barely anything for me to do since you took us in.”

“Please, don't overthink it.” Teresa brushed off my thanks. “Your brother partnered with my daughter and therefore you are family. One doesn't leave family to fend for themselves. I just wish you would call me mother from now on.”

Her comment pulled at my heartstrings as I was reminded of my sister, but I forced myself to smile nonetheless. “I still feel like it would be a little too much.”

Eva was all alone back at the castle city and I was supposed to be back by now. She must believe me dead. I hoped she wouldn't do something foolish with me missing.

Teresa seemed to read my thoughts and her expression turned compassionate. “Don't worry. We will find out what the Thich did to you and your sister. We will reunite you as soon as possible, but there is nothing that can be done at the moment. Right now, the best you can do is to look forward and prepare for the end of winter.”

I nodded and forced myself to smile. “Don't worry about me. It's still a few months before I can even think about running off to save her. I admit to being hotheaded. I often do or say stuff before thinking through the consequences, giving in to my emotions, but I am not suicidal enough to brave the snow outside. The problem is just that all the free time I got recently leaves me with too much opportunity to dwell in my melancholy.”

There.

I said it.

At least I wasn’t in denial of my failings.

Looking back, I had to admit to behaving like a moron in regards to my brother. Also, my blind vendetta against Astra was simply misguided. The impotent flailing around of a child who didn’t know who to blame. How I managed to talk myself into it seemed very stupid in hindsight.

If Thalia hadn't helped me see it, I would still be stewing over it now.

The stubborn part of myself was still of the opinion that there just hadn’t been any chance to cool down. First the shame of losing to Astra, then injury and capture, then the exhausting trip to Mount Aerie.

It had been just one damn fucking thing after the other!

Strange, how just two days of relative safety at Aerie had allowed me to collect myself at least a little bit.

“Ah, the troubles of youth. Believe me, I know teens who managed to get themselves into worse situations thanks to their hormones. A tendency to have loose lips and running head-first into walls isn’t so uncommon in someone your age.” Teresa placed a finger on her lips and took a moment of thought. “If you want, I can organize some training courses to further your abilities. I would have done so sooner because you are still young, but I still don't know what you are interested in aside from combat training. My people told me you spent a lot of time in the training hall when your brother isn't around.”

I blinked at the older woman, suddenly feeling chagrined.

It sounded like she expected me to pursue some higher education which I felt unsuited for. “I am sorry, but I wouldn't know what to do. Back at the Thich compound, they forced us through basic schooling. It was math, writing, and some basic knowledge about the world and the clans. And then it was all about survival training till I ended up here.”

I blanched. “In hindsight, I see now how their doctrine might've served to keep their recruits stupid and compliant. They always told us girls not to worry about our future, because our mutations would ensure our adoption into one of the Thich's more influential families. Or how a career in their military was guaranteed if other options didn't work out.”

Teresa's lips curled downwards. “I found their elders despicable during the peace talks. Who knew they would fall even lower after they got their will and managed to make all the clans isolate themselves. I was always of the opinion that we humans should work together. Instead, we squabble between our small communities to eke out a living by taking from our neighbours. And here one would think we might have learned something after being exiled to this hellhole of a planet.”

Her gaze turned distant as if she remembered something from long ago.

Then she shook herself. “Let's return to the topic of your interests. There must be something you would like to learn. We Frosts have always lived by the motto: ‘education never ends’. This is doubly important since we achieved a certain form of immortality. Or should we better call it longevity? We have a lot of preserved knowledge here at Mount Aerie. You could study almost anything you want. From more comprehensive math to art or economics. Given our lifespan, everything makes sense.”

I blinked, unsure of what to say. “I guess... the only thing I always liked back at the Thich compound was studying the bestiary. Not only does it help to know what deadly thing you are up against, but I also like discovering new stuff. Back at Thich, they never talked about the possibility of higher education.”

“Oh, I am sure they have it... for their trusted citizens at least.” Teresa nodded. “Maybe you are up for a more general form of biology then? I could have you join one of our hunter courses for now. A part of the twelfth strata's job is to know our prey as intimately as ourselves. Alternatively, you could join one of the White's educational facilities. They specialize in taming animals and farming.”

I hesitated. “Is it okay to learn from another strata? From what my brother told me, I was under the impression that there are tensions.”

Teresa scoffed. “There certainly are, but we are still one clan. Thankfully, the tensions your brother spoke of are mostly restricted to the leading families. The general population is allowed to switch stratas as they wish. It may look like one from the outside, but we aren’t a caste system.”

She tilted her head in thought. “The stratas are organized more like companies. People are allowed to sign off and hire according to their interests. I can proudly say I underwent all educational courses the various stratas have to offer. An elder needs to lead by example. Alternatively, you could always go and sight our extensive library. It helps to broaden your fields of study to find something which interests you.”

“Thank you,” I took a sip from my cup. “I’ll gladly take you up on your offer. Maybe I can start with the hunter training?”

It sounded like it was a continuation of what I already learned in survival training.

Teresa nodded. “Certainly. Just don’t fixate yourself on a path too early. I believe Astra wanted to organize a trip through all the stratas to familiarize Magnus with Clan Aerie. You should join them. Who knows… maybe you will find your calling.”

Another thought struck me. “Wouldn’t it be dangerous? What if the other elders try to take me in?”

Teresa almost choked on her tea and had to swallow before she answered, “I would like to see them try. You are now a Frost, Ivona. And therefore, beyond their grasp. If they apprehended you, it would give me the perfect excuse to kick down their doors and take some heads. And there would be nothing the other elders could say about it.”

I forced myself to smile, wondering whether Teresa actually wanted me to get kidnapped. Was I a convenient excuse? A morsel she had decided to dangle in front of her rivals?

She was so nice, but I could imagine her with a fishing rod, trying to lure some idiots out of the crowd while she was playing with a dagger hidden behind her back.

The woman rolled her eyes. “You are doing it again.”

“S- sorry,” I stuttered, starting to believe she could really read my mind.

“No, I cannot.” Teresa shook her head. “I am just very good at reading people. At interpreting their body language and placing myself in their shoes. The more I know about them, the better I get. And you, Ivona, are like an open book to anyone who pays attention. Totally unlike your brother.”

“You can’t read Magnus?” I asked, impressed that big bro had managed to get Teresa's recognition.

Teresa moved her hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “When he thinks he is alone with Astra, his mask slips, but otherwise he is extremely good at hiding his feelings and thoughts. One could say I hesitantly approve of Astra’s choice.”

We kept conversing for another hour, drifting from topic to topic.

At last, Teresa decided it was time to depart and we took a carriage to the Tates’ hospital. I followed my benefactor demurely. Alone, I certainly wouldn’t have found the path to Sienna’s office. I would have sworn that the winding corridors were intentionally confusing to prevent patients from reaching their destination.

Thankfully, Teresa knew exactly where to go and we were greeted by Thalia and her mother just a few minutes later.

“Thalia!” I ran forward and gave my friend a hug and a chaste kiss on the cheek. Just a greeting, nothing more.

Okay, maybe I had developed a slight case of Stockholm syndrome with her. But what other choice was there than to make the best out of the situation?

“It’s okay. Don’t act as if we haven’t seen each other for weeks. It has been no more than a day.” Thalia patted my back.

I let go of her, slightly embarrassed about allowing my emotions to run wild… again. “S- sorry.”

Then I bowed to Sienna who had already been joined by Teresa at her office table.

The healer only smiled with a benign expression and shared a look with my new mother in law.

“We have run your samples through most tests we could think of,” Thalia informed me. “I bet you would like to hear the results.”

I eyed my friend and then her mother. “What did you find out?”

Sienna gestured at a stack of papers. “We pretty much confirmed your condition. There was a strong relaxant in your blood and tissue samples.”

“A relaxant?” I parroted, taken aback. “I don’t feel relaxed. Overall, I am quite an emotional person.”

“Your current physiology could be immune to your own mutation,” Sienna explained. “Often enough, different mutations can be combined to achieve a greater effect. The relaxant explains why the Thich combine your mutation with other powerful ones which would be otherwise an inviable combination. Your mutation might be able to act as a counterbalance to ones which introduce ‘undesirable’ instincts.”

I pulled a chair closer and sat down. “So they really reared us like cattle?”

The two older women shared another look before Sienna shrugged. “To be honest, our clan also rears the next generation on predetermined paths. I only managed to confirm your story. The only concerning thing about this revelation is that you might be incompatible with people who would add more… hmm… let’s call it ‘docile’ evolutions. The result might be apathetic individuals.”

“Which is good,” Teresa interjected. “Confirming your mutation means more proof for the council of elders. We can work with that.”

“The only thing we can’t figure out is why they need sisters. Or why red hair would matter,” Thalia added. “We wanted to ask whether you would be fine with donating more blood. The chance for further studies to reveal new discoveries is small, but we want to try. There are still some experiments we can do to cross-reference your mutation with others. If nothing else, it will reduce the chance of a future partnership going horribly wrong.”

“I wish some of the old tech would still work,” Sienna grumbled. “One working gene sequencer and we would know what was going on. Instead, we have to fumble in the dark with pre-information age methods.”

“Of course,” I readily agreed to the blood donation. After all, it was possible for the Thich to keep their secrets. If it was something that affected my health, then I had to know for the sake of my future.

“Great!” Thalia gestured for me to follow her. “Come. Let’s allow the old folk to reminiscence about the past while we younglings follow marching orders.”

“Thalia! Language!” Sienna immediately reprimanded her daughter. “You are an adult and should know how to conduct yourself!”

Teresa seemed bemused and only chuckled while Thalia showed her mother the tongue.

I quickly followed Thalia out of the office. “Are you sure you should speak like that to your mother?”

My friend waved away my worries. “It’s fine. Mom knows perfectly well that I am beyond correction at my age. She is trying nonetheless. And Teresa is an old friend of the family. She is well aware of my rowdy side.”

Thalia led me into a laboratory just a few rooms away and gestured at a wheelchair. “Please, take a seat. If it’s anything like last time, then drawing the blood will take some time.”

I sat down while she retrieved a medical kit with several needles, tubes, and bags.

A few moments later, she returned with one of those metal posts to hold infusion bags. “I swear, those sturdiness mutations of yours are a horror for anyone who wants to get your blood. But this time, I am prepared.”

I pursed my lips, slightly amused by the memory of when she had tried the first time to get a blood donation. She had found a vein easily enough, but my blood had coagulated so quickly that it clogged the needle and prevented significant amounts from escaping.

“Let’s just make it quick and slice open an artery,” I suggested. “I will heal easily enough.”

“Nonono!” Thalia shook her head. “No can do! This is a hospital, not a butchery!”

She raised a clear bag with something inside it. “A vampeel’s poison. Prevents the coagulation of blood. Just don’t get into any fights for an hour and we can do this without butchery.”

“Is that a plastic bag?” I frowned, confused about how the Aerie would get their hands on such valuable material.

Thalia looked equally confused before she realized what I was talking about and laughed. “Cooked treemonae filaments, sewn together with widower silk.”

“Is that sanitary?” I questioned.

“As sanitary as you can get in this world,” Thalia reassured me.

One needle went into my elbow to administer the anticoagulant. Another into my wrist to collect the blood.

Unlike the previous time, my blood flowed. Droplet by droplet, it went into the bag, but at a glacial speed.

Thalia flicked the bag with a finger and nodded. “Much better than last time. And besides, if this anticoagulant works on you, it will give us some additional information about your abilities.”

Or lack thereof, I added mentally and voiced another complaint, “It’s still so slow.”

“Better than slicing arteries,” Thalia countered. “And as fascinating as I find watching your mutation at work, you have no dates on your calendar. So there is no point in mutilating yourself”

I pouted.

“Hey, sorry for abandoning you right away, but I have some more things to prepare for the other experiments,” Thalia apologized. “Will you be fine staying here while the bag fills up?”

She took a bandage and loosely wrapped my arm with it to fixate the needles.

I sighed but gave her a thumbs up. “Do I have a choice?”

Thalia smiled and used a leather strap to secure my torso to the wheelchair. “Just for safety. I don’t believe someone with your mutations would keel over from a little blood donation, but it wouldn’t be the first time. We don’t want you to fall out of the chair and break your pretty nose.”

“Course not,” I mumbled and waved her goodbye as she left.

“Ciao, don’t get up until I am back,” were her last words as she turned around the corner.

Damn! I hoped to get a little more time to chat.

With my friend gone, my eyes drifted down to my bandaged arm.

I found the entire procedure excessive when I could have simply slit my wrist. It wouldn’t have killed me and as long as the cut was done with a decently sharp blade, I would have healed up by tomorrow.

Alas, I didn’t want to ruin Thalia’s little experiment, so I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Still being patient.

Damn it, I just wasn’t a patient person!

But Thalia said I should stay put.

Hmmm.

Less than ten minutes later, I found myself fumbling with the wheelchair’s breaks. Which was easier said than done with only one hand because the other had needles in it.

Finally, I achieved my goal thanks to a rod-like instrument that I ‘borrowed’ from the nearby table. Once it had fulfilled its use, I abandoned the improvised arm extension and used the pole with the infusion- and blood-bag to push myself through the laboratory.

Thalia hadn’t exactly said I shouldn’t move around. Just not to get up.

Sadly, the room was boring as hell. It could have been any random infirmary. Certainly not as cool as the test lab which I went through during my first visit.

So I found myself wheeling along the corridor just a few minutes later, peeking into room after room. Sadly, this wing of the hospital seemed mostly unstaffed and boring as fuck.

I was about to give up and return to my room when I found a large one with several beds and a person lying on one of them. It was a handsome, dark-haired guy who looked a little older than me. He was also on an infusion and had one arm in a sling while his upper body was propped up with several pillows.

In his free hand was a large book and he was completely absorbed in it. So much so that he didn’t notice my presence until I was halfway to his bed.

When he looked up with a perplexed expression, I greeted him, “Hi!”

He looked at me as if I was a ghost before he replied. “Hi? I wasn’t aware of other patients in this hospital wing.”

“Oh, I am only here for a short blood donation for Thalia and Sienna.” I pointed at my arm. “What got you in here? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look messed up.”

My new distraction sighed, but he closed the book. It seemed like he realized I had no intention of leaving him be.

“You could say I overstepped my bounds and got my ass kicked,” he hedged. “Something I am prone to do. It cannot be helped.”

I frowned at him. “Why?”

He tilted his head and looked at me like I was some strange animal he hadn’t seen before. “You really don’t know me?”

I shook my head. “Nope. Oh, and my friends call me Iv.”

He blinked, apparently still not knowing how to deal with me. “When my parents are informal with me, they call me Tor.”

“Tor, heh. Nice to meet you, Tor,” I blabbered. Was he some special kind of social recluse? Why did he say, parents? Normal people would mention their friends.

“Likewise,” Tor replied. “I don’t often talk with people other than my family.”

Now it was my turn to be confused. “What? Why?”

Tor looked at his infusion bags and grimaced. “Well, because I am a horrible person.”

“You don’t seem like a horrible person to me,” I pointed out.

Tor shook his head. “That’s only because I am currently full of narcotics. The Tates wouldn’t be fine with having me here otherwise. I am also the reason why this part of the hospital is so empty – if you noticed. Being in the same space with lots of people flips all my triggers. My mutational path was a little messed up. Bad instincts which are hard to control.”

I nodded to show I was paying attention. “If it helps, I think you are doing fine as long as you are drugged.”

Tor smiled for real this time and it somehow made him even more attractive.