Page 11 of Breaking Ties

He looked at the image, and his brows rose. “I will call him. If he can pry himself away from his books, this will be interesting.”

“He doesn’t get out much?”

“He emerges from his world once every ten years and acts as judge on important matters and appeals on his worlds. His focus is on the law.”

“Nice. I am a fan of the law myself. More interested in justice. If he shows up, he shows up. I am not pinning all my hopes and dreams on him. If he doesn’t show at the appointed time, a new vision of a new Hmrain will appear.”

Ra frowned. “You would give up?”

“I am not surrendering to fate, but there are some things that I can’t nudge into position. I can’t fight for someone who won’t show up.”

Ra grinned. “As written, the oracle is wise.”

“I am biting back a witty remark.”

“Yes, I find that most of the ladies who are consort class have clever minds. It makes for very trying conversations at times, but I can always distract Harwin.”

“By dropping a child on her.”

He smiled. “On her, in her. Either one is distracting.”

A smaller gold fist smacked Ra in the shoulder. “Shut up, Honoured Ra.”

He laughed, wrapped his arms around his mate and son, and lifted them onto his lap. “You have our contact codes. Contact us at any time, but be prepared to wait if I am showing my mate appreciation.”

Harwin grimaced. “Five minutes if I am doing the same.”

Aubrey chuckled. “Fair enough. Thank you for the greeting.”

“You are very welcome. Ra was curious. There hasn’t been an oracle since he was young.”

“I thought they were created fully grown.”

“They are, which means that he was fresh off the assembly line when one of the worlds produced an oracle.”

“Ah.”

Ra said, “I am astonished at how many unusual bloodlines have emerged from Geb.”

“Well, perhaps, if the designers hadn’t been so concerned about you, they wouldn’t have sent assessors who decided an orgy was the best use of their time.”

Ra grinned slowly. “It was a time before mass media. Folks had time on their hands once the harvest was in.”

Harwin snorted.

Aubrey grinned. “Yeah. And traders and travellers probably followed the assessors.”

Understanding hit Ra’s gaze. “Yes, they would have.”

“So you had a party in a box. The box being Geb.” She smiled. “Add a few thousand years and some serious survival trauma, and all of those ancient genetics woke up.”

Ra smiled. “So the Dyturan and the seed of life are out there as well.”

“Probably. They may already be off world. I hope that they are. Things were getting pretty grim.”

Harwin frowned. “How many are left?”

“I don’t know. All I know is I crossed paths with others once every three months, whereas it was daily at the start. Survivors got scarier.”