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to her head and pressed against it. The Master knelt at the other side and pressed his cheek to Jimra’s before kissing her.
    Rorrom blinked, “Uh, Master Yoris, what did I miss?”
    “It is a blood link, and neither I nor her link thought to inform her that she can no longer travel alone without ramification. The beast is a Yaluthu, an empathic healer. They are now a trio.”
    “That explains the passing out; what about the seizure?”
    “I suppose it is part of her physiology. Her body probably panicked.” Yoris stepped forward and stroked her hair the moment that Huros got out of the way.
    Rorrom watched Yoris pick her up. “I will take her to her room. Meet me in my daughter’s quarters as soon as you can.”
    The little creature squeaked angrily, and Huros put him on Jimra’s chest.
    The Citadel Master flew off with the woman in his arms. Huros took off at a run.
    One of the healers looked at Rorrom and smiled. “Confused?”
    “Uh, very.”
    “Jimra is Yoris’s daughter from before he declared. Huros had to be sedated and Jimra had a cut. Her blood got on his skin, and they linked. The fluffy thing is a Yaluthu, and Yoris is not pleased with the union. Got it?”
    Rorrom exhaled sharply. “Got it. Too bad. I liked Jimra. She had potential.”
    “She still does but not with you. It is funny, I wonder if it is that she is an alien or something else about her. She has quite the group of admirers in both sexes.” The healer patted him on the arm. “Come on and get some tea and a hot meal before you have to move the ship back to the spaceport.”
    Rorrom followed the two healers inside while wondering how Jimra was doing. She had been pale and thrashing in the cargo hold when he grabbed her and strapped her to the gurney. He unbuckled her the moment she stopped fighting, but he still didn’t know why he had to tie her down.
    He just wished it could have been under different circumstances.
     
    * * * *
     
    Jimra felt like she had been hit by a skimmer. She groaned and opened her eyes, surprised by the robe she was wearing over nothing else, and the purple creature with the whirling black eyes who was staring directly at her. It chirped hello and hopped down the bed to her hand, pushing its head under her palm.
    “Hello. Tremor, is it? What a charming name for such a particularly stunning creature.”
    He made a happy, warbling noise, and she felt the pain in her body recede.
    “He’s a Yaluthu.”
    She tensed at the voice behind her and ignored the fact that she could feel his body heat through her robe. “Huros.”
    “Correct. Your father and I neglected to inform you of the details of the link, and it could have cost you your life. I am here to correct that.”
    He put his hand on her shoulder and her heart thudded and her mind relaxed. She cleared her throat. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean that you need to know what this blood link actually means. We cannot be apart.”
    She wrestled with that thought while he explained that the blood link was related to the declaration. A declaration of the same-sex preference meant that they were surrendering their right to reproduce. Children born before the declaration were accepted, but there was a special registration process that could take months if not years. They were legally entitled to their family ties, but the Ypra government had to verify both parents. Bloodlines were everything on a world with strictly controlled reproduction.
    It was all confusing and wrapped in politics, which was not Jimra’s favourite subject. When he finished explaining that the same-sex preference had to be recorded because it meant that two people had left the breeding population.
    “All males are temporarily sterilised at puberty, so it is uncertain as to how your mother got pregnant in the first place.”
    Jimra smirked. “I can explain that. We are accumulation breeders. When we decide we want at child, or when we are faced with an exceptional partner, the woman’s