The Truthspoken Heir by Novae Caelum

Author:Novae Caelum [Caelum, Novae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781958696002
Publisher: Robot Dinosaur Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

20

THE CHANGE

To Change is to embrace a possibility of a person you could be. We are none of us just one person.

ARIANNA RHIALDEN, MELESORIE X IN THE CHANGE DIALOGUES

They were four days out from Valon, one day yet to go until they broke out of Below Space over Hestia. The hum of the trade ship’s engines was now a permanent soundtrack in Ari’s bones. Did Bettea feel it, too? She didn’t think so.

Ari gripped the post of the double bunk and stared at herself in the holographic mirror. Bettea, sitting on the bunk, studied her with faer head tilted to one side. Ari didn’t have to be Truthspoken to know Bettea’s expression wasn’t good.

Her Change wasn’t enough. It was hardly enough. It had taken her two days of exhausted tries at the Change trance to get just enough concentration to move her eyes slightly farther apart, to thin the shape of her lips. Hair was another day—she’d grown her brows thicker, grown more fine dark hair on her upper lip.

And then, exhausted from those Changes, her body had mostly refused to do more. She’d nearly passed out trying to give herself another few centimeters of height—she hadn’t gained a single millimeter. She’d given up on any modifications to her body shape—the effort and energy it had taken to attempt the Changes had thinned her too much, anyway. She hadn’t been able to Change her skin color more than a few degrees in either direction and had settled on slightly paler, mostly because she was too exhausted to do more. She’d nudged the brown of her eyes a few shades lighter, too. She hadn’t been able to Change the color itself.

“All right,” Bettea said slowly, “we can work with this.”

“How?” Ari gasped. “Seriously, how?” She waved at herself in the mirror. She was dressed in a loose robe Bettea had packed, rumpled from two days of alternating trying for trance and sleep. She hadn’t showered in three days and badly needed it.

“I’m a mess. I look Rhialden. I don’t even look that far off from how I did at court.”

Bettea ran faer hands through faer short hair. “Well, we already agreed that would be best. You’ll be from a minor branch of the Rhialden line.”

Ari stabbed a finger at herself in the mirror. “This doesn’t look minor. This looks like me, but . . . off. I’m a living vid filter.”

Bettea reached for her hair. “We haven’t done this yet.”

Ari fought the urge to swat faer hand away. Hair wouldn’t change her base appearance.

“And we can use cosmetics. That will do much.”

“I’ve never needed cosmetics.”

Bettea arched a brow. “Yes, you’ve never needed, but you do now.” Fae grabbed faer hair kit from the bed. “We’ll do it in the bathroom. I don’t want to be cleaning hair from the bed.”

Ari kept a hand on the wall as she followed Bettea to the ship’s single bathroom. It wasn’t as tiny as it might be and even had a small tub—a decadent luxury for a trader.

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