Page 69 of Veiled Vixen

“Yeah.” Draden frowned. “I really want to go home and see him. When do you think we can do that?”

“Not soon, I fear,” ALCOR replied. “Things are a proper mess because of that Veila bitch. Do you have any memories of her?”

ALCOR asked this question for two reasons. One, he really did want to know if Veila was responsible for what had happened to Draden back on Cetus. He already hated the fake princess with a blazing passion, but a little more fuel for that fire never hurt.

But mostly he just needed to pick Draden’s brain about where he’d been in the intermittent time between his death and his rebirth.

Because Draden had mentioned the Seven Sisters. And if there was one thing ALCOR wanted to avoid it was his sun-damned seven sisters.

That was a battle he was not prepared for at this moment. Not like this. In this body. He needed to get Harem Station back in order before that happened.

ALCOR had not packed away any of his memories of the sisters he’d left long ago. Those experiences had stayed with him no matter what. He would discard all other things to save those memories in his current mind state.

“Not really,” Draden answered. “I just remember being alive and fighting. Looking at Serpint inside the ship. I think Ceres was on my left. Then… whoosh.”

“Whoosh?” ALCOR asked.

“Yeah. That’s the sound of my brain being sucked outside my body. It was a whoosh.”

“Like wind?”

“Yeah. Like wind.”

Draden recounted this with a half-smile on his face. That was one of the things ALCOR loved so much about him. Unfazed. That was a great word to describe Draden.

Calm. Even. Not soft, but not hard. Not cocky, but not shy, either.

Easy. That was the right word, ALCOR decided. Draden was easy.

Easy to love, easy to protect, easy to communicate with. He was almost incapable of lying. Valor was like this too, up to a point. Valor was also even, and calm, and honest. But Valor was complicated and Draden was not.

Draden was easy and simple.

He was the perfect human.

ALCOR should have never allowed Draden to go out into the world with Serpint. That had been his major mistake. He should’ve kept him at home with Tray and Crux.

But Serpint would not have left him behind. And ALCOR needed Serpint to hunt down princesses.

“But nothing of Veila?” ALCOR asked.

“Nah.” Draden shook his head. “Just… that place. The Seven Sisters. I’ve been meaning to ask you about them.”

“Them?” ALCOR tried to play it off. Act nonchalant. But Draden said them. Did he know? Was he on to ALCOR? Did he realize the Seven Sisters he was referring to were not a place, but people?

“You know, that star… what do you call it? Not a constellation. Grouping? Group? Is that the right word? I’ve heard of that term. Moving groups. That’s a thing, right?”

ALCOR nodded his head. “It is. Moving group describes suns in the same neighborhood. A very close neighborhood, so that as the galaxy spins they move with it as a group, and not separately. They also come from the same nursery. That’s why they are so close together in the first place. The Seven Sisters are not a moving group. They are a cluster.”

“Ah,” Draden said. “I get it. I think.”

“But why are you so interested in this cluster of stars?”

“I dunno.” He scowled a little as he paused. “I kept hearing that name in my head. Mind? Whatever I was in the interlude between then and when Tray found me. They were talking to me.”

“Who?”

“These stars. These sisters.”