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scavengers, but still beautiful, in their way.”
    A slight breeze brushed Asler’s face, and he looked up to see a large bird, white and gray with yellow feet and a strong beak; its wings pumped the air as it maneuvered to land not far from him. He found himself shifting uncomfortably under the creature’s beady gaze. Perhaps it would eat him if the chance arose.
    “There were bluejays too.” Her mental voice reflected a hidden amusement at his reaction. The seagull faded away, replaced by a smaller bright blue bird with feathers tipped in white and black. It let out a little shriek and flitted away, leaving behind a light blue feather which drifted softly to the ground.
    Asler reached down and picked it up.
    “I’d forgotten about the feather. I kept it for a long time.” She looked at it and then at their clasped hands. “Is all of this really happening?”
    “The birds, this place—they are memories. What happens between us when we talk, that is really happening right now.”
    “It’s like a dream. Or like the last two months were a dream.” Despair laced her mental voice. “A nightmare.”
    Asler pulled her close. The embrace, intended only for a moment’s comfort, seemed to be what she had been waiting for. Tears pooled in her eyes and spilled over her cheeks in fat droplets. The urge to comfort was overwhelming, enough that he could not stop the way his hand began to stroke her back, caressing L’inar she didn’t have, or halt the kiss that moved his lips over hers in a gentle possession.
    “Wait…” Her despair scattered by the surprise of his actions, Susan began to pull away. The beautiful flush of her skin reminded him that humans didn’t expect these actions from a superior, or require them for comfort.
    “I apologize. Inarrii comfort each other this way. I forgot for a moment you were not…”
    “Not Inarrii.” Her body did not stiffen with alarm as Asler expected. She actually relaxed, responding to either his kiss or his words just as a troubled Inarrii would. Now he was the one confused, but also relieved as he acknowledged to himself that he might have made a serious blunder with her case if that had not been her reaction.
    Perhaps, for her, sensuality could be a key to trust and a deeper contact, just as it would with an Inarrii. With that thought he brought them back to the black sands of his home world.
    “You are very tense. I would ask you to relax, but I know that words are never enough. Allow me to deepen our m’ittar. I can only do this through contact.”
    She looked him in the eyes, her glance seeming to measure him. Her gaze seemed to catch on the feather he’d pulled from her memory and brought along with them to his home world, its edge flaring out from the narrow pocket of his robe. Finally she nodded.
    “Roll on to your back.”
    She lay back in the sand, stretching out her lanky body with a grace any warrior would be proud of. She rolled over, giving him her back and her trust. He lowered himself to the sand beside her and pictured the vial of oils he’d left at home, bringing one memory into the other and blending them as only a master Examiner had the ability to do. Unstopping the bottle, he breathed the scent in, a blend of herbs infused in siland oils that brought peace to a restless mind. A few drops on his hands and he began, slowly stroking her unmarked skin. He kneaded her muscles, applying pressure as he’d been taught by his first lover.
    He ran his palms over the lean length of her back. The edge of her pettan had slipped, and he could see the dimples at the top of her tailbone. He swallowed hard. This contact, pushing the limits of her trust to deepen the strength of their m’ittar, also pushed the limits of his desire. He shouldn’t have put off engaging in sex with the eager young officers on the ship. The urge to run his fingertips under the soft material of her pettan and pull it down to expose the rounded cheeks of her ass tightened his groin.