The turkey seemed to notice them, for every muscle in its body froze at the sight of the two larger threats. For a long time, it didn't move, didn't so much as twitch its feathers.

Maeyune turned her head slowly and gave Reo a wide-eyed glance. He stared back, brows knitting in question. He looked as hungry as she was, and their only source of food had sprung out of the blue and sat a short distance away.

But he had to be the one to catch their breakfast, not her.

"I can't kill a living creature," she whispered.

She didn't know if it was still true now that the moon was destroyed, but she still had Shivra's life force. She could not risk breaking the Moon God's oath, even if she no longer had powers.

When Reo made no reaction, she was afraid he hadn't heard her. But a moment later, the turkey let out a startled cluck as it levitated into the air. It flailed its wings and kicked its legs in a mad search for the ground. Then, with a crisp snap of its spine, its head flopped to the side and dangled from its neck.

Without any power, Maeyune could not see the animal's life force disappear from its body, but she knew it was dead. She could only afford it a second of remorse before hunger became a gnawing sensation.

The small turkey floated past her, and Reo retrieved it from the air, grabbing hold of its legs. He ducked the animal into the stream, and without offering an explanation of what he was doing, his hands cast a bright, red glow. A minute later, the water around him began to boil. Maeyune moved away, ensuring a safe distance.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Scalding, to help remove the feathers," he answered.

"You've butchered turkeys before?"

He looked up at her, smiled. "This old lady in Aburat taught me. Was a nice, little job, until I realized all the blood was scaring the girls away."

"Are you sure it was the blood? Or was it your penchant for violence?"

He laughed. The sound was rich and full. "Oh, desert girls have seen all kinds of violence. They love it when men take action."

"Desert girls," she said, tasting the phrase. "You must have never experienced a real lady before."

He gave her a roguish look, but before he could offer any sort of response, she said, "I'll gather firewood."

With a gulp of air to prepare herself, she withdrew from the stream and swept as much water as she could from her skin. She donned her battlesuit's garments in haste, making a reminder to remove them again later in order to dry her undergarments.

Some time had passed before Reo finished plucking the feathers from the wild turkey. By the time he removed the entrails, Maeyune still hadn't returned. It was only when he peered into the trees did he see the slightest flicker of light from a fire. With a curious frown, he rinsed the turkey before collecting their things and making his way through bushes and undergrowth toward the light.

Maeyune had started a fire on her own from two rocks that lay next to her. While she had waited, she had stripped down to her bare skin to wring out her wet clothes. Once she'd done the best she could, she'd dressed again and sat by the fire to keep warm, her legs drawn to her chest and her cheek resting on her knees.

Her eyes were closed when Reo found her. He gave the fire a look of approval before setting their belongings down. From his sack, he drew out a metal fragment that he had obtained earlier from the Wobeck wreckage, and with precision, he carved off chunks of the turkey's flesh.

Afterward, using a bit of telekinetic effort, he constructed a framework of two short walls made out of rocks on either side of the fire. Using the metal rods that had been attached to the dead Wobeck bulbs, he laid them across the two walls to serve as a grill over the fire. With the cooking contraption in place, he applied the sliced portions of meat on top of the metal rods. Then, he sat back, brushed his hands together and admired his own work.

"Impressive," he heard Maeyune comment.

She had opened her eyes to watch him. He grinned at her. "Isn't it?" He leaned back on his palms. "My best work yet."

The thought of food had both their stomachs rumbling aloud. Maeyune groaned.

"We still have to wait, unfortunately," he said.

They allowed the moment to fall into silence, listening as flames crackled and meat sizzled. The atmosphere of war had left them a long time ago, and Maeyune dwelled on the peace that now fell over them, even if it was transitory. It was a while before they spoke again.

"It's quiet out here," she murmured, listening to the natural noises of the desert forest. There was no hint of an alien invasion happening hundreds of miles away. She wondered what the Wobeck were planning now.

"Yeah, it is," Reo replied, casting his eyes up to the canopy and the sky beyond.

"Do you ever ask yourself why Shivra and Yunra chose us and no one else?"

The question was sudden. Reo glanced at her, wondering how long she'd been thinking about it while she'd waited for him. "All the time."

"I used to torment myself with questions," she said, "until I realized that it was simply in our blood."

He waited for her to explain.

"My mother was a moon temple High Priestess, but she was no ordinary High Priestess. She led Ursa First, the moon temple of all moon temples." Maeyune lifted her head and held Reo's eyes. "And you descend from the first kings of Bera, who were also the first sun temple High Priests."

Her eyes traveled to the fire, and he saw their gaze grow distant. "We have magic in our blood," she said. "Our past defines our future."

"So we were doomed no matter what?" he said.

She chuckled, the sound soft and tired. "If you want to see it that way, then yes."

"Do you ever wonder what we--the gods--were like in our former lives?" he asked. "If only we could remember what it was like when they were dragons. The Overlord was right. The Guardians limited their powers when they were reborn in human bodies--reborn through us."

Maeyune gave a slight shrug. "They had no other choice. It wasn't as if they had a spare dragon body to take advantage of."

"Do you think the dragons will ever come back somehow?"

Her brow creased in thought. "I'm not sure. I would like to think so."

"So, what's this about not being able to kill a living creature?"

She looked up at him again and read the genuine interest on his face. Her eyes shifted to the pale slices of meat that cooked above the fire.

"It is Shivra's sacred oath," Maeyune answered. "My mortal body requires nourishment, as all animals of life do. However, Shivra--and I--are forbidden to slay any creature that contains a life force from this world."

Reo's steady expression told her precisely what he was thinking.

"But it doesn't mean it can't happen," she confirmed quietly.

"So when you kill someone..."

"I lose some control over my power," she answered. "It's a darkness that hinders my connection to Shivra."

She finally noticed the long irregular stick in her hand that she had grabbed from nearby. Restless, she used it to shift around the embers in the campfire.

"When I murdered those five individuals," she said quietly, "I was left powerless for months. It took an entire year before my energy returned to its normal state."

He raised his brows. "Seriously?" he asked.

She nodded.

"And those three Iron Prophet members? You still had powers after that."

"I'm much stronger than when I was eight years old," she said. "You could say I have more...leniency in how many murders I can commit."

She intended to smile with sarcasm, but the morbid subject drained her humor.

"I guess Yunra has more leeway," Reo said, his eyes returning to his task. He reached his bare hand out to flip the turkey meat. "Must be a Ranhabeck-Guardian thing."

She considered his remark.

A Ranhabeck-Guardian thing.

The Overlord was not Wobeck, but their older ancestor, the Ranhabeck, and he had claimed Shivra to be his kin. The Overlord had said that the Ancients had chosen Shivra--or Lehrach Gu'al--to become Guardian to Vaius.

Perhaps in order to ascend from Ranhabeck to dragon god, Shivra had been required to swear the oath to protect life and not destroy it.

Yunra was a pure Guardian, born a dragon god. That must have implied her ability to both create and destroy life if necessary.

Questions spilled inside Maeyune's head.

Guardians and Ranhabeck. Their sparkling, old gods--the Ancients. Vaius, a seed of many seeds, drifting in the uncharted Black.

What else existed beyond their little planet?

Maeyune decided the embers had deserved enough poking. Setting aside the stick, she rested her chin on her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs. It had been a long time since she'd remembered much of her childhood.

"I grew stronger over the years," she whispered, "so much so that I realized I had the ultimate power of persuasion--telepathy itself. Murder was entirely unnecessary if I could wield one's mind."

With careless ease, Reo tossed a small twig into the fire, and for entertainment, he watched it burn. "I didn't have that kind of power," he uttered. "I did what I had to."

Maeyune pondered those words and wondered how many men and women he had killed in his duty to protect the innocent. "Everything we do, we have to," she murmured. "What is it you want to do, Reo?"

He turned the wild turkey meat over and waited a few seconds before offering her an answer.

"Write my own path, I guess," he said, shrugging. "Go exploring, do things I want to do without facing some kind of reprimand. I don't want to have to worry about fighting just because I'm the only one who can. Don't get me wrong, I like being all-powerful. I only wish everyone didn't depend on me all the time. Sometimes I feel like every mistake I make is the end of the world."

He found her nodding in agreement.

"Then why don't you exert your will?" she questioned. "No one can control you if everyone is under your authority."

She despised how much she sounded like Jaysek, but she wanted to ask him. She wanted to hear his answer.

He chuckled, a low and acerbic sound. "I don't think I'd be good at world domination," he replied. "I'd end up killing all the people I care about."

"You doubt yourself quite a bit."

"For a long, long time, I couldn't control my powers," he said. He tossed another twig into the fire. "I didn't like the way people looked at me, as if I were some kind of bomb about to explode at any moment."

"People fear what they do not understand," she said. She rested her chin on her knees again and set her eyes on their campfire. "You eventually grow numb to the constant stares."

"You ever make people do what you want them to?" he asked. There was a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.

A slow, wry smile crossed her lips. "It gets boring eventually."

Skeptical, he narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't believe you."

Maeyune had seen and felt all manner of things when at a young age. As a child, she had understood the emotions of anger, fear, pain and happiness. But when she'd perceived sensations like envy and murderous contempt and the passionate throes of love and lust, it had frightened her.

"I think you would learn a great deal of restraint as a telepath," she said. "You hear so many voices that eventually they begin to mask your own. I've learned a great deal about privacy. You don't want to know the things I've learned, the things that forced me to ask my aunt some very uncomfortable questions."

He arched an eyebrow. "Such as...?"

She sputtered in disbelief. "I am not telling you."

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?"

She sighed. "I was walking down a corridor in the Ursan celestial base when I heard a man with a woman--"

This time, both eyebrows shot to the top of his head. "Oh."

"I was ten."

His face made a twist of horror and mirth. "Well."

"Yes. Well." She shook her head at the memory, and she felt a shiver travel down her spine. "It's quite disturbing when you can sense everything. He was one of my military professors, and he was married and cavorting with a nurse. When I asked my aunt about it--who I will add was beyond heaven's fury--she had a vibrant conversation with the king, and that man was dismissed immediately."

"You've been scarred ever since," Reo said, holding back laughter.

"You can say something like that," she said, shaking her head again but managing a grin.

(Continued in Part 4)