“Who are you to your Empire?”

Vree sank down onto the bench next to Human-Amir and gazed out at the stars. They were currently facing a beautiful nebula, and he was not surprised that Human-Amir had chosen this spot to read.

Human-Amir marked his spot in his book and leaned back on his hands.

“My younger cousin will sit the Galactic Throne,” he replied quietly, and Vree wondered if it was healthy not to be surprised at such a revelation. “His father is the brother to mine. Twin, actually. I’m… seventh or eighth in line for the throne.”

“You do not know?”

“My sister is due to have a baby any day now. Since she’s older, her baby will be higher up the line than me when he’s born,” he explained casually, as if it was a matter of no importance. “I’m excited to meet my new nephew. I’ll probably take a week or two to go see everyone. You should come.”

“Me, why?” Vree cocked his head curiously. “I thought your breeding rituals were private.”

“They are,” Human-Amir chuckled. “And so is birthing, usually, but we encourage people to meet our young so that everyone pack-bonds with them before they stop being cute and start being obnoxious.”

“Does that happen quickly?”

“As soon as they get real mobile, they’re trouble. Very cute trouble, but trouble.”

The way he said it made Vree wonder whether this was a universal-human thing or a Human-Amir thing.

Suns help him, he was starting to talk like them. He would have to decide later whether this was good or bad.

“I would be interested in meeting the new cub in your Pride,” he decided after some thought. “I have never met a human cub.”

“Yeah, we keep them pretty close to the family for the first fifteen years or so,” Human-Amir admitted. “Hamid, the new baby, he’s gonna have a lot of opportunity, but he would be a valuable hostage too, and our family knows that.”

“Would you not be as valuable?” The seventh in line for the throne, cousin to a prince, that seemed like someone valuable to Vree, but maybe he was wrong. “You are a prince yourself, are you not?”

“Technically, I’m Duke-Lord of the Kahzafer system, and the surrounding asteroid belt. That’s why I took the name Al’Kazafer when I came here.”

“Is that less title noble?” Humans were so strange. Vree wondered how they kept it all straight. Where he was from, it was just Pride and Pride Leaders. Certainly, they were large Prides, sometimes spanning the whole of a country, but Prides, nonetheless. Anyone could challenge for Pride leader if they wanted, but mostly people didn’t.

“Lower down the line,” Human-Amir said with a shrug. “If- sky forbid- if something happened to my uncle and his family, my father would take the throne. Sahina and I would be the heirs, Crown Princess and prince respectively. Little Hamid would be a prince too.”

“So you will not rule unless a great deal goes wrong,” Vree could put those pieces together for himself. “But that will not happen, and so you are not a prince. But what are you doing out on a research vessel on the fringe of the galaxy?”

“I keep up with the work for my Dukedom,” Human-Amir said, and considered how to explain for a while. Vree watched the stars slowly drift past and wondered how differently Human-Amir saw the nebula. “But xenotechnology is my specialty, and I’m doing important work here. The Empire needs eyes out here that it can trust, and my uncle asked if I wanted this opportunity.”

“Your uncle, the Emperor.”

“My uncle, the Emperor. He knows I’m a pyromancer, and that I have some combat training to go with the science. He figured I would be alright out here.”

Humans. Humans and their strange family dynamics and their frankly confusing politics.

Vree had no less than seven papers under review for publication. Somehow, he had become one of the leading experts on humans and their customs, biology, and political structure.

Human-Amir laughed at him every time Vree got a new invitation to speak to rooms full of scientists much more qualified than he was. The last time, Human-Amir came with, and cheerfully provided himself as a demonstration for Vree’s talking points.

Vree got a commendation from the Ha’reet High Pride Counsel for that speech. He still didn’t know what to make of that, either.

And Lord Petros seemed to think he was interesting.

Vree tried not to think about that at all, and answered any questions the ancient dragon-lord had for him. There were lots. He did his best and hoped he never met the dragon in person ever again.

Or any other dragon, for that matter. One was enough.

“Should I be using a title for you?” he wondered, already considering his next scientific paper. Somebody ought to figure out how human pack-bonds worked, and that someone was probably going to have to be him. “You told me to use a title for Lord Petros, not a species moniker.”

“I would rather you didn’t use my title,” Human-Amir said thoughtfully. “No one really knows who I am, or who my family is. That helps keep me safe.”

“Does Human-Nerea know?”

“Oh yeah, but she’s direct-line from Lady Petros’ older sister. She’s as noble as I am, in her way.”

Why. Why were humans so sun-cursed complicated. A fire-spouting human and a who-knew-what shapeshifting human, and both of them noble and all of it complicated.

“Humans,” Vree only sighed, because really, that one word wrapped up all his feelings on the matter.

Human-Amir just laughed, and began explaining the complicated dynamics of what made someone nobility.