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as fast as he looks. Oh, there he is.”
    The woman looked at the huge bulk of Ysyr and back to Col. “You beat him in a footrace?”
    “I took air, he took ground. I win. If he hadn’t cheated, I would never have considered it a race, but as far as I know, you only cheat when you want to win and that makes this a race.”
    “Wow. I have never seen anyone beat Master Ysyr before. You are either very brave or very confident.”
    He shifted and walked toward her with a brisk stride.
    Col laughed, “I am neither. I am his mate.”
    The shocked eyes of the young woman were the last things Col saw before Ysyr bent her back over his arm and kissed her senseless.
    As a first kiss went, it was a little on the violent side, but she wove her fingers into his hair and hung on as he learned her taste and she, his.
    When he righted her, he looked a little flustered. “I apologize. That was a little sudden.”
    She blinked and pressed her fingers to her swollen lips. “It is fine. I just wasn’t expecting it.”
    He ignored the woman next to her and asked, “Was that your first kiss?”
    She nodded.
    His blush was intense and he leaned down to kiss her lightly with slow attention.
    “I am sorry. I should not have pounced on you like that.” His words were spoken a centimetre away from her mouth.
    “You owe me another one of those kisses, just like the last one. We can pretend we are starting over at a later time.” She reached up and caressed his cheek.
    He grinned and a voice sounded next to them.
    “That is very touching. May I have the pleasure of addressing Colah Geering?”
    She turned her head and bumped into Ysyr when she backed up. She had never seen a Dhemon before, but it was rather unmistakable.
    “I am Colah Geering.”
    “Col, this is Turnari. He is the Administrator of the Citadel Base, Morganti.”
    The Dhemon was looking at her with a distinctly amused look. “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Geering.”
    “Col, please.” She conquered her fear and extended her hand to the creature out of Resicor myth and legend.
    He bowed over her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles before straightening. “I saw your arrival and had to come. I had no idea that the Resicor were such talented seamstresses.”
    She twisted her lips. “They aren’t. This is a living suit grafted onto my body. I would ditch it in a minute and stand here naked if I could.”
    There was a low growl from behind her and she reached behind her absently to pat Ysyr into silence. She missed his thigh by inches and jerked her hand back with crimson staining her cheeks. “Sorry about that.”
    Turnari was stifling a laugh. “Come with me. We will check you in and set you up with an aptitude counsellor and assign you a room as well as get you into some novice robes.”
    She yawned. “Good. I could use a little rest after the day I have had.”
    Both men chuckled and she was shepherded inside, several of the Citadel personnel turned to watch her pass and she suspected that women wearing nothing but a partially concealing bodysuit were rarely accompanied by two of the highest-ranking members of the Citadel outpost.
    She was taken to the clothing stop first and her glittering bodysuit was covered by a loose draping of a gauzy white that marked her as a novice of the Citadel.
    “This seems a little thin.” She lifted her sleeves.
    Turnari smiled, “You are a flier. We didn’t want to weigh you down.”
    “Sensible.” She smiled, “So, what does an aptitude counsellor do?”
    “She will do a psychic probe and see what you would excel at.”
    Col frowned, “But I can fly.”
    “There are many tasks that can be enacted with the ability to fly. Some require additional training to carry out and if you have an aptitude for them, the training would begin immediately.”
    She shrugged and looked to Ysyr. He had his head high and was walking proudly through the halls. He was very much the Master Instructor at that particular moment.
    Col yawned again.