written by JessicaEdelbrock 

Ellein had always imagined the Da-Sowt were monstrosities from beyond, with needle teeth and glowing eyes. The stories said they were the size of mountains with booming voices. The man before her was far removed from those visions as he sat crumpled over a waste bin trying not to vomit whenever the airship moved.

The man and his consort looked like Etorans, though their coloration was strange. His hair was shaggy and dirt-colored. Some of it grew on his jaw and chin, which was unusual. His eyes were an unexceptional brown. His skin was tan like the people across the Great Sea. The woman, who did not register as Da-Sowt on their scanners, could have been from Ludown. Her skin was as pale as Ellein's, but speckled with tan. Her hair was the color of wood, and her eyes were too many colors. They were dressed in foreign garb, but they were prepared for the cold.

It was difficult to define what happened in the breech. The pair did not exactly surrender, but Ellein and her team didn't quite capture them either. The consort fought and was sedated for it, but the Da-Sowt came without a struggle.

Now Ellein sat across from her people's enemy, one of the beings that had doomed her people to extinction so many generations ago. She didn't know how to feel about it. She wanted to kill him, but it was hard to feel threatened by a seemingly normal man with crippling air sickness.

When it seemed he had nothing left to spit up, he leaned against the wall wearily. By now he seemed to have figured out the common tongue of Etora and spoke plainly enough when he could. "What did you do with Erin? Is she alright?"

"Your consort is being held elsewhere on the ship. We have isolated her from your power so that she may come back to her wits."

"Consort?" he said with a soft laugh, "Look, lady, you've got the wrong idea about me and her. She's a friend, not whatever you think she is."

"We will not tolerate your kind's domination here. She will be sent back to her people once she is free of you."

"Right..." he rubbed at his temples. "I'm one of her people," he corrected.

"She is Da-Sowt? Do the females not have your power?"

"I don't even know what Duh-Soat is. I'm just a guy having a fucking terrible month. Erin and I came here to find help."

"I'm sure," Ellen all but spat. "I think you came here to see how your little eradication ploy was coming along, but you weren't expecting us to be waiting for you."

He was quiet, apparently debating his next words. "Duh-Soot-"

"Da-Sowt."

"Whatever. Humor me, here. Are they people with powers like mine?"

"Yes."

He groaned. "I didn't ask for these powers. They were shoved down my throat by another of these Da-Soot people. That's why we're here. We need help to get rid of them. They're tearing our world apart."

She blinked. She hadn't expected anything like that. "So your people are fighting one another?"

"Stop saying 'your people.' Transcendents, what you're calling Da-Sowt or whatever, aren't a race. They aren't from my homeworld. All kinds of different races can turn into Transcendents, and a bunch of them are fucking up my world right now. We came here because this is like a... like a DMZ for them. They won't come here so we figured there was a reason. Can you kill them or something? Can you help us get rid of them? Fuck, if you can't, can we at least send some refugees? There are billions of men, women and children that are going to die if we don't figure out how to stop this."

She stared at him, processing his words. Her heart was racing. Men? They could send men here? That could save them. And what if he was being honest? That would mean these beings weren't a people as they had thought. Maybe they had no homeworld. Maybe the Da-Sowt just wandered world to world, doing as they pleased. It could be a trick though. The Da-Sowt had never figured out how her ancestors were able to kill them. Maybe he was bait to get them to reveal their secrets.

She was roused from her thoughts by a knock on the door. "Enter."

A private nursing a bloody nose entered, saluting as best she could. "Captain, the consort is loose."

"Jesus fucking Christ, Erin," the Da-Sowt mumbled, seemingly to himself. "Can you not be a psycho for like ten minutes?"

Ellein's eyes narrowed suspiciously at her captive. No, this was a trap. It had to be.