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  “What?” That changed things drastically. “They can’t delve into Taxo either?”

  He grinned at her and gave her one thumbs-up as the spicy noodles arrived.

  Lania filled her plate and chuckled. “Nope. Our contracts were up for negotiation, so we tied it all together. For every time you are asked for your private information in public, they lose us on one mission.”

  Taxo grinned at her. “Come on, Mom. You have to do it. You are made for way more than being a seamstress.”

  “I like being a seamstress.”

  Lamira smiled sheepishly. “You still can be. Team Eight is only part-time. You get the mission bonuses and legal protections but will probably only be called on a few weeks a year, if that.”

  Lania mumbled around a mouthful of noodles. “You just have to report to basic training on the first day of the week.”

  Lore blinked. “Basic...”

  Taxo pushed his plate, so it was next to hers, and he moved around the table to hop into her lap. She absently wrapped her arm around his waist, and he translated for her. “Mom, basic training is where they show you how to use the equipment and make sure that you are in good-enough shape to complete the missions.”

  “Where did you learn that?” She rubbed her chin on his soft curls.

  “I watch vids as my reward for good landings.” He continued to pick out his favourite dishes and ate as if the food would disappear.

  Lania smiled. “The rest of your team started today, but we knew that you had this planned.”

  Lore scowled at her. “How did you know?”

  “I checked Taxo’s file. It was on the schedule.”

  Lore sighed. “Of course, you did.”

  Lamira looked around. “Isn’t this where you ate when you were carrying?”

  Taxo answered. “Yup. She says that the moment I came out, I wanted spicy noodles and battered sticks.”

  Lore sat as he had his conversation with their family, and she occasionally paused to break up his food into graspable pieces.

  Lania finally sat back and sighed. “Thanks for dinner, Lore. I haven’t eaten like that in ages.”

  Lamira chuckled. “She isn’t joking. We have been running around the cluster for the last four months. It is exhausting.”

  “How are the other members of Team One dealing with it?”

  Lamira grinned, “Parties, drinking. We are on official leave barring natural disaster on this world.”

  Taxo asked, “Will Mom have to go off world?”

  She looked at her grandson. “Probably, but just for a few days. Teams below Four are more diagnostic than anything else.”

  Lore felt his small body relax. “Mom is good at that.”

  Lania nodded. “She is.”

  “Thanks. I do try.” She chuckled and ate her food or, at least, the bits that tasted good cold.

  Lania sighed and extended her hand over the plate. “You could have asked.”

  Steam began to rise from the plate, and Lania refreshed all the platters one by one.

  Taxo watched, and he stared as heat waves could be seen coming from Lania’s hand. Lore heard his whisper, “Can she do that when she isn’t on duty?”

  She chuckled. “Yes, she has been reheating leftovers with her hands since we were children.”

  “Wow. That’s neat. Can she see what is coming at her, too?” He turned his pretty eyes up toward her.

  “Um... no. She can’t. That isn’t her skill.”

  He nodded. “Oh. It is still pretty cool, though.”

  Lamira had her hand over her mouth to stop her laughter, and Lania was blinking in surprise. Having the ability to move molecules never ordinarily failed to impress.

  “Family is always a harsher critic, Lania.” Lore grinned.

  “Yeah, I suppose so. Funny how he just dropped me down a peg.”

  Taxo shrugged and set his utensils down. “I wasn’t being mean; I just think that Mom’s skill is more useful in the long run.”

  Lore chuckled. “He has been studying tactics.”

  Lamira raised her brows. “So soon?”

  Taxo wriggled uncomfortably. “I am advanced for my age.”

  Lamira grinned. “Just like your mother was. She was serving in an advisory capacity for her father before she was eleven.”

  Taxo turned and stared up at her. “You were?”

  “I did what I could. That is how I learned some of my cheats.” She winked at him.

  “They don’t work for me.”

  “I know, but you have wings, so there are things you can do that I could never do.”

  “Right. Different but equal, you just have to look for it.” Taxo nodded.

  “You have it, dearest. Now, shall we head out for dessert?”

  “Yes, please. Grandma, Aunty? Will you join us?”

  Lore leaned down and whispered, “Are you going to help them?”

  He nodded solemnly. “And you will help me.”

  Lore laughed. “That is right. Now, let’s get the bill and make sure that Teeman knows we enjoyed the meal.”

  He hopped off her lap and waited for her to get to her feet. She paused at the server station and paid, leaving a hefty tip. Taxo was waiting for her next to Teeman, and they stood facing him, and when he nodded slightly, they bowed. His grin was wide when they stood and wished him a good evening. Teeman was from Fenrel. Formalities were everything to him.

  “Have a good night, Taxo. Take care of your mom.” Teeman waved goodbye, and they left the restaurant, waiting for the others to join them.

  “So, what do you think?” Lore looked into her son’s wise eyes.

  “I always wondered how you got into the teams. Now I know.” He grinned. “Your mom shows up and tells you you are in one.”

  She ruffled his hair as her mother rounded the corner; her crimson hair swayed in the wind.

  “Well, where are we going?”

  Taxo puffed out his chest. “It is a short walk from here. Follow me.”

  Lore shrugged and grinned at her mother. “Follow him.”

  The two heroes of the modern world followed the only male born to their bloodline for seven generations. It was an amusing sight.

  Chapter Three

  “Open wide, Lania.” Lore extended the spoonful of ice cream to her sister with a grin.

  Her sister scowled at the spoon. “This lacks dignity.”

  “The spoons conduct heat, so if you want to eat it frozen, you will take it from the spoon. When is the last time you had something truly cold?”

  Lamira was being fed by her grandson, and her brows were raised in surprise at how cold the confection was.

  Lania looked over and then shrugged, opening her mouth. Lore fed her and waited until her mouth closed before getting her own spoon into the action.

  Taxo was very serious as he helped his grandma eat ice cream, possibly for the first time.

  “So, Lania, how is it?”

  Her sister glared and muttered, “Shut up and give me more. I didn’t know it tasted like that.”

  Lore fed her again and kept her left hand feeding herself. She mumbled around a cold mouthful. “It is designed to be eaten cold, not in soup form like you and Mom drink it.”

  Lania nodded and swallowed. “I can see the appeal. No wonder this place is packed.”

  “To be fair. Half the inhabitants are gawking at you.”

  “They are gawking at our gathering. It is rare to see two members of Team One being spoon fed in public.”

  Lore shrugged. “I have been trying to get you to try some of the frozen desserts for ages. If Taxo can convince you, I am willing to help.”

  Taxo solemnly announced, “Now, we switch.”

  Lore nodded, and she and her son changed positions. After a few minutes, her mother was outraged. “Why are you eating so much more than Taxo?”

  “I am ambidextrous and have a lot of experience feeding a child. You
are just an alteration in targeting.” Lore winked and shovelled another scoop full of the ice cream into her mouth.

  Her mother leaned in. “Are you really keeping well? I could offer financial assistance if you need it.”

  Lore shoved some more ice cream in her mom’s mouth. “I am fine. We are fine. I make more than enough funds to keep us both clothed, fed, and educated.”

  Her mom mumbled, “Are you still in school?”

  “I take classes every time I have a break at work. They have wonderful online access here.”

  “So, you are happy?” There was a soft wistfulness to her tone.

  Lore grinned. “Now that I can see Taxo in person whenever I please, I am delighted. I am even giddy that he can come home for the occasional weekend. I am just nervous about the Team matter.”

  “Don’t worry. Team Eight gets called out to do structural assessments in the aftermath of disasters and stuff like that. Nothing critical.”

  “Ah. Right.”

  “I mean after everything has been fixed. You verify that folks have done their job.”

  “We audit the repair and the hero work.” She was catching on.

  “Pretty much. There is very little for you to do. Consider it a customer-relations position.” Lamira smiled. “You are good at dealing with the public.”

  “That is true. That isn’t the part I am worried about. I am worried about dealing with other talents. They don’t always appreciate my genius.” Lore winked.

  “That is because they don’t know you are using it. Really, Lore. You were given this gift by the gods. Use it.”

  Lore wrinkled her nose and finished the ice cream. “I am using it, just not in the way you would like me to.”

  “You can be so much more, baby.” Lamira reached out and stroked her cheek.

  “I am what I am meant to be.” Lore shrugged. The trail of warmth that her mother left behind sank into her soul.

  Lania murmured, “What does your foresight say about the new team?”

  Lore couldn’t help it, her mind spun forward, and she saw a week of basic training. “That they are not going to like me much.”

  Lamira frowned in concern. “Why not?”

  Lore rubbed her forehead. “No one likes a know-it-all.”

  Taxo reached out and patted her knee. “They will get over it, Mom. They need you, and you know it.”

  Lore laughed. “You are right. They do.”

  Lamira asked, “Why didn’t you know about this assignment to a team?”

  “I don’t look in my own timeline unless I have to. Or unless I am driving. The rest of life needs to unfold as naturally as it can.”

  Her mother smiled. “That is the same kind of attitude your father had.”

  “Yes, it was.”

  For the first time in her adult life, her mother truly stared at her. “You knew he was going to die.”

  “So did he. He went anyway. The option was the deaths of three large cities. It was a choice that he made as a hero.”

  “You have lived with it all this time.”

  Lore shrugged. “I didn’t want to tell you if you didn’t want to know.”

  Lamira looked at her soberly. “You don’t tell a lot of the things you see, do you?”

  “It is part of the talent. You can’t walk through the streets as a firebrand, and I can’t tell everyone what will be happening to them when they are in my presence. Folks tend to take that as correlation with me being there for the unusual events.”

  “Has that happened?”

  “When we were back home? All the time. That is why Father insisted that I was privately tutored. It wasn’t just to circumvent the regulations on educating women, it was so that I wasn’t in danger of being mobbed.”

  Lamira chuckled. “Your teacher was good at showing you what you needed to know publicly and what you wanted to learn.”

  Lore nodded. It had been a tense time. With her father as the prime hero of her world, they had had many dignitaries and ambassadors in their home. She had needed to present as a lady, not as a woman who had an interest in the chemistry of textiles designed for weatherproofing and impact defense. Tutor Jamiad had forwarded her information to a textile and chemical researcher on M’Van, and they had a strange but informative discussion on the best way to create suits for the heroes on the Team projects.

  “I can still sew a very straight seam.” Lore winked.

  “Our family was always the best turned out at every national event. We were consistently asked about our designer.” Lamira sighed. “It was stressful to be critiqued at every moment of every day, but I would go back there right away if your father were there.”

  “So would I, but he isn’t, and here we are.”

  Lamira sighed again. “I miss him.”

  Lore squeezed her mother’s hand. They sat in silence while Taxo and Lania chose another flavour, and he carefully carried it back to the table.

  Lamira chuckled and looked to Taxo. “Will you help me choose another one? I have been out in this world so long, and yet, I don’t know which one to pick next.”

  Taxo grinned, and they went to the counter, ordering another cup of ice cream in a fruity flavour.

  Lore grinned when her sister slid over and handed her the spoon. “Feed me.”

  Laughing, she scooped up some of the dark and some of the light, delivering it to Lania’s mouth with the practice of a woman who had started feeding her child at six months, when all of his teeth had come in.

  They talked about missions, about getting along with other teams and working with strangers at every location. Lore was ready. She could do this, and in her long-range forecast, she already had.

  She tucked Taxo into bed and stroked his hair. “Are you good to sleep?”

  He grinned. “No. You have to tell me the story.”

  She exhaled. “Isn’t it a little old by now?”

  “Never. I always want to hear about us.”

  Lore settled against his headboard, and she stroked his wings as she thought of where to start.

  “As long as you have lived, there is only one day you don’t remember,” Taxo prompted.

  “Right. As long as I have lived—which is not as long as grandma or aunty Lania—I have known every moment of my life and kept vivid knowledge as I passed through it. Every day has been as clear as a polished diamond, and I have been able to look back and describe it to anyone in detail. Every day... but one.”

  Taxo smiled.

  “One day, I woke up and checked the chronometer and found that I was missing a day. I checked; I double checked. I triple checked, but there was a day missing. I looked for my clothing, but it wasn’t laid out like I always did. I looked for my shoes. They were gone, too. I looked for everything that was normally there, and it wasn’t in the right place for me rising in the morning. I closed my eyes, and I could remember back, but only the day before last. One whole day was missing.”

  “And then you got sick.”

  She nodded. “I told your grandma and my sister about the missing day, and they were scared. When I started to throw up, we found a doctor who wasn’t part of the religious organizations, and he ran the scan for us. He told me that I was carrying a child and that it had happened about the time that I knew time was missing. He thought I had done something silly with a boy, but he agreed to keep it quiet until I was showing. After that, I would be hauled in front of an inquiry, and I would be imprisoned until you were born.”

  “But you saw a different future.” His voice was sleepy.

  “But I saw a different future. I saw a little baby, gold from head to toe in my arms, but we were on a different world. Mom and Lania were there, and they were smiling. I told them about my vision, and they put it into action. Your aunty had been forced to marry an unpleasant man, but he had a lady that he liked, so he agreed to separate from her. Grandma got an invitation on one of the worlds with heroes, and she was allowed to take me as
her escort.”

  He snuffled, and his breathing evened out.

  “We had to walk in stages because I was quite sick. One burst of steps at a time, we matched our movements to my visions, and when the time was right, we ran for it. We plunged through the portal with the blasters starting to fire, and I was caught on the other side.”

  A low mumble said, “Darkflight.”

  “Yes, it was Darkflight. He caught me and held me up, telling me that I was safe.”

  The sleepy eyes opened until there was purple visible in each one. “And you barfed on him.”

  “And I threw up on his suit. I have to hand it to him, he hung on to me and helped get me to the medics who were standing by. The portal was sealed, and we were safe.”

  He smiled, and she stroked his hair.

  “Months went by, and I got really fat. Doctors yelled at me, but I couldn’t help it. Even water turned to fat when I drank it. Then, one day, my belly heaved and twisted while your gran and aunty were away on a mission. I had to call for assistance, and guess who arrived to help.”

  The mumble was indistinct. “Darkflight?”

  “Darkflight came, and he flew me to the specialty med centre as it was known I would need additional help. I was so fat he could barely lift me, but when I threw up on him again, he didn’t drop me.”

  There was a soft snort.

  “I was in labour for two days before you finally made your debut, and by then, Gran and Aunty had come back and were holding my hands. You came out like you had just been waiting until your family was all together. You came out, and we were complete.”

  She heard his soft snoring. “And then all the water came out in a rush, and they found an empty sack where another baby should have been. My body recovered, and they brought me to you after they scanned you. The doctors didn’t know who your other genetic donor was, or what he was, but you were healthy, and I had my family with me. That is what makes it the best story ever.”

  Lore leaned down and kissed his forehead, sliding away from him and pulling the blanket over his shoulders but leaving his wings open. They tended to get hot.