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Xeva stared at her, and it suddenly clicked that she knew her. “You are one of the team apprentices. Zella?”
“No. Zella is the reason I got these marks. I am Ysma.”
“What? No. You are Gemini.”
“No. I am not. That was Zella’s idea. But we are parted now, and these marks will help me stay that way.”
Reth smiled. “It is some of my best work. Can I scan it?”
“Sure.”
When Ysma got up, her nearly shaved head turned toward Xeva, and she gasped. “Oh, my god.”
Jeron was instantly tense. “What?”
Ysma looked at her. “Do you have a problem? Can I help?”
“No. Well, yes. Where is that mark from?”
“Oh, the research team marked us. Why?”
“It matches mine. You were supposed to be dead. The lab told me that there were no other survivors.”
Ysma smiled, naked and covered in lines that formed a strange connection all around her. “We were too dangerous, even for the research team. We were at a containment facility until we heard Uradda was liberated. Then we escaped and joined the line. Becoming apprentices to the team was a no-brainer.”
“How are you dangerous?”
“Well, Zella can hide inside me and use my activations.”
“Plural?”
“Oh, yes. She decided that it was best for us to become team members and agents.” As Ysma stood there, her skin began healing at a rapid rate. “It is a complicated story, and I am not going to mess up your date. You obviously came to talk to Reth, so as soon as he finishes documenting his handiwork, I will return to the hotel and leave. I am just here on a tourist visa anyway.”
While Xeva watched, Ysma’s hair grew, forming a dark purple wave to the middle of her back. She went from being chalky to soft gold with beautiful blue eyes.
Jeron nudged her, nodded, and smiled. Xeva said, “Wait. Will you stay and have lunch after we have our consult?”
Reth took shots of his work. He sat back and smiled. “Thank you. I hope it does what you had hoped.”
He finally looked at her face, which was glowing with power and a slight smile. Ysma said, “I hope so, too. I will get dressed. Good thing the tattoos have already healed.”
She nodded and headed into a changing space.
Xeva was stunned. “They told us the others were all dead. They only kept me with Nelith to keep her under control.”
Ysma called out, “You developed too slowly for their liking. You showed an energy signature but didn’t match exactly, so they used you as leverage to keep Nelith calm. We were disposable, so they took us apart and put us together again.”
Jeron chuckled. “Could you pretend you can’t hear us?”
“Oh, sure. Sorry.”
Reth was grinning. “She’s been a pleasure to work on. The bruising freaked me out, but once she explained what it was, it made a certain sick sense. So, I have been looking at your family crest and have worked up something island-appropriate.”
He grabbed a tablet and handed it to Jeron while a sterilization cycle went across the medical bed and equipment that wasn’t already in the autoclave.
The sigil was understandable. A woman in chains, firing a thousand blades with the wall of Uradda looming over. It was unmistakable for anyone else. It was the bogeyman. The Blade of Uradda.
Then, there was a set of markings that formed a prison.
