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Hazor moved slowly and deliberately against Cloudy. “This is an interesting pocket of community.”

“Well, your mother stuck us here.” She smiled. “She wanted to try the different, but she didn’t want us to disrupt anyone.”

“There are a number of human-Vecchin couples here.”

“Yes, there are.” She smiled.

“That is unexpected.”

“Well, we are a tight-knit community. A little too tight-knit. Most of the people here are related to me within a few degrees of removal. We were a small town. If you go back three hundred years, we are all related. Once we were handed an unlimited gene pool, those who wanted to jumped right in.”

Hazor blinked. “So your pigment?”

“Me and the cousins thought it might go easier for folks if they got a rough estimate of what the kids of differing combinations would look like.”

Hazor smiled. “That is very community-minded of you.”

“That is what happens when you are in a small community. One succeeds so all elevate, and you all have something in common again.”

Bess was nearby. “She learned the laws regarding food and beverage service, so she taught all of us. She still won’t tell us her akko dressing recipe. Guardian Hazor, please ask her to share.”

Cloudy sneered, and Hazor and the guardians looked delighted. “Why are you all looking so happy?”

“This isn’t simply community; this is family, and Hmrain don’t have large families. It is amazing. My grandfather is going to want to examine the dynamic.”

“Vecchin? Really? Why?”

He flickered with white flame. “I have a few thoughts, and the reports have been sent to him. Any change in his bloodline is very interesting to him.”

She was about to comment when his suit started chirping. He sighed, kissed her, and headed out the door. Morsek kissed Bess’s hand and cheek, and Arkon kissed Molly until she frosted his shoulder. They left after Hazor.

Cloudy sighed. “Well, that has been a helluva thing.”

Molly grimaced. “I think he gets off on getting cold.”

Cloudy walked Molly and Bess to the back. “He’s tapping into your emotions and seeing if you are on the right frequency for consumption. He’s goading you into emoting.”

Molly’s eyes turned silver. “That sneaky bugger.”

Bess smiled. “Morsek seems sweet.”

Cloudy cocked her head. “He’s thoughtful. All three of them work well together.”

Bess put her hand on Cloudy’s shoulder. “You look to have had a day. Let’s get a shot of dizzy and talk about it.”

They returned to the table, where Molly brought over a set of shots and chilled them with her hand. Molly smiled. “It’s still weird, but it was handy.”

Bess smiled, and they all settled around the table. The place hired mixed staff as long as they could do the job they applied for.

Bess lit the frozen shots with a small wave of heat, and they took their glasses, extinguished their beverages by blowing them out, and then sipped.

Cloudy explained her day, beginning with the stall in the water and finally getting to use her new gills twice.

Bess smiled. “And you went fishing and caught a Hazor.”

“More like I had a shiny window, and he smacked into it.”

Molly smiled. “You caught him with food when he was off a mission.”